We must see to it that Israel remains Jewish, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Monday during a meeting on the drafting of a law that would specify the criteria necessary for obtaining residency status in Israel.
Sharon ordered the establishment of a professional panel, headed by Interior Minister Ophir Pines-Paz, to draft a proposal on the Family Reunification Law that would define the criteria.
During the deliberations, National Security Council officials suggested drafting a law that would make it harder for Palestinians who are married to Israelis to receive Israeli citizenship.
The National Security Council has recently formulated a plan for “improving the demographic situation in Israel,” Yedioth Ahronoth reported Monday.
According to the plan, the conditions for receiving Israeli citizenship would become more stringent, and the issuing of entry visas into the country would be curtailed.
The plan comes amid estimates regarding the growth rate of the Arab-Israeli minority, according to which Arab-Israelis would account for 40 percent of the population by 2020, compared with 20 percent today.
The Jewish majority in Jerusalem
is also diminishing, and in15 years Jews will account for only 60 percent of the city’s population - a 20 percent drop from the current figures, according to the estimates.
The erosion of the Jewish majority in Jerusalem is due in part to the flow of Palestinians from the territories into the Green Line as
a result of their marriage to Israelis.
Interior Ministry data show that until the beginning of 2005, 192,136 non-Jewish families obtained Israeli citizenship.
The Shin Bet security services speculate some 100,000 Palestinians reside illegally in the country.
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