RAMALLAH, West Bank, May 16, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A modern day Romeo and Juliet are but an example of a nightmare lived by some 25,000 Palestinian and Israeli couples living apart because of Israeli restrictions.
"We're in a Kafkaesque situation. All we want is the right to live together as a married couple," Jasmin Avissar, a 25-year-old Israeli Jew, told Reuters on Tuesday, May 16.
"The authorities are constantly trying to keep us apart," added her Palestinian Muslim husband Osama Zatar.
With Israel refusing to grant the couple a residence permission, they live in the West Bank city of Ramallah but on borrowed time.
Avissar's Israeli army-issued permit to cross into the Palestinian-run city is temporary.
The Israeli High Court of Justice on Sunday, May 14, upheld a controversial law preventing Palestinians married to Israelis from obtaining residency in Israel.
Before the enactment of the law, a Palestinian living in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip who was married to an Israeli citizen could apply for Israeli residency and eventually receive citizenship.
The Israeli law denies residence permits to virtually all Palestinian men under the age of 35. The Israeli military also generally bars Israelis from Palestinian-ruled territory.
Fighting for Love
More than 25,000 families live apart when Israel denies residency to one or more members. (Reuters)
The couple have appealed to Israel's High Court to force the government to allow them to live together indefinitely, either in Israel or in the Palestinian territories.
"We love each other and plan a future together, if we can have one," said Zatar, a sculptor.
That "if" rings through their lives -- their uncertain situation makes talking about buying a house, or having children impossible.
Their chances of success are uncertain.
In the couple's separate petition, lawyer Michael Sfard quotes from Shakespeare's tragic romance Romeo and Juliet.
"Being held a foe, he may not have access to breathe such vows as lovers used to swear; And she as much in love, her means much less to meet her new-beloved anywhere", he wrote quoting Shakespeare.
The lawyer maintains that under the United Nations declaration on human rights and international law "the appellants have the basic right to live a family life and free choice of spouse."
Sabine Hadad, a spokeswoman for Israel's Interior Ministry, said that under Israeli law Zatar was ineligible to apply for Israeli residency.
Human rights groups estimate more than 25,000 such families often live apart when Israel denies residency to one or more members.
"The state has the right not give everyone citizenship, but the way the system works today is racist and harmful," said Sharon Abraham Weiss, a lawyer for the Israeli Association for Civil Rights.
He accused Israel of restricting visas to Palestinians to limit the number of Arabs who live in Israel.
Welcoming the Sunday's court ruling, Israeli Immigration Absorption Minister Zeev Boim said: "We have to maintain the state's democratic nature, but also its Jewish nature."
Israeli Arabs (Palestinians living inside what is now Israel) make up a fifth of Israel's six million population.
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