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ISRAEL: Egyptians married to Israeli women to lose citizenship?

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Depending on one’s view, Netanyahu‘s first visit to Washington ended with a glass half empty or half full.

Among other things, the half-full glass is filled with important U.S. statements about regional involvement and the role that Arab countries must play in the process.

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‘We emphasize that this is not a one-way street,’ Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said, adding that it is vital that the Arab world join a regional road map. Netanyahu, for his part, seemed pleased with the new component requiring the Arab world to take ‘concrete steps to improve relations with Israel and begin to move forward with reconciliation.’ Great hopes ride on the Arab peace initiative, which could result in 57 Arab and Muslim countries gradually normalizing relations with Israel.

Very gradually. Normalization is still a ways away, especially in Egypt -- the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel.

Wednesday, an Egyptian lawyer won a lawsuit demanding the ministry of Interior implement a law revoking the citizenship of Egyptians married to Israelis. The 1976 law predates the peace treaty with Israel and refers to Egyptians married to Israelis who have served in the army or who have embraced Zionism as an ideology, explains the Associated Press. The ruling said such marriages undermined national security, as well as the institution of marriage.

Tens of thousands of Egyptians are married to Israeli citizens. Most are married to Arab Israeli women, who don’t serve in the army. About 7,000 to 10,000 of them live in Israel.

One of them is Shukri Shazi. For the last 15 years, the head of the association of Egyptians in Israel has lived in Nazareth with his wife of 20 years. He’s angered by the ruling. If he were married to a citizen of Holland, he says, he wouldn’t pose a threat national security or defile the Egyptian institution of marriage.

They plan to fight the decision. Shukri Shazi told Israel radio that next week the association will stage a demonstration outside the Egyptian Embassy in Israel, and after that they intend to appeal to the international court.

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In a related issue, Israel too may be in breach of international law if it goes through with its intention to revoke citizenship of four Arab citizens suspected of terror or acts endangering state security, although Israeli law does permit this in extreme cases.

-- Batsheva Sobelman, in Jerusalem

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