Editing Demographics of Israel (section)

=== Citizenship and Entry Law ===
{{Main|Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law}}
{{Update|inaccurate=yes|section|date=August 2012}}
The [[Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law]] (Temporary Order) 5763 was first passed on 31 July 2003, and has since been extended until 31 July 2008. The law places age restrictions for the automatic granting of Israeli citizenship and residency permits to spouses of Israeli citizens, such that spouses who are inhabitants of the West Bank and Gaza Strip are ineligible. On 8 May 2005, the Israeli ministerial committee for issues of legislation once again amended the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law, to restrict citizenship and residence in Israel only to Palestinian men over the age of 35, and Palestinian women over the age of 25. Those in favor of the law say the law not only limits the possibility of the entrance of terrorists into Israel, but, as [[Ze'ev Boim]] asserts, allows Israel "to maintain the state's democratic nature, but also its Jewish nature" (i. e., its Jewish demographic majority).<ref name="scotsman1">{{cite news |title=Arab spouses face Israeli legal purge |url=http://www.scotsman.com/news/international/arab-spouses-face-israeli-legal-purge-1-1117832 |newspaper=The Scotsman |date=15 May 2006 |access-date=18 October 2012}}</ref> Critics, including the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3152651.stm |title=UN blasts Israeli marriage law |publisher=BBC News |date=15 August 2003}}</ref> say the law disproportionately affects [[Arab citizens of Israel]], since Arabs in Israel are far more likely to have spouses from the West Bank and Gaza Strip than other Israeli citizens.<ref name="sfgate1">{{cite news |title=Israeli marriage law blocks citizenship for Palestinians |url=http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Israeli-marriage-law-blocks-citizenship-for-2599244.php |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |date=1 August 2003 |access-date=18 October 2012}}</ref>

In the constitutional challenges to the Citizenship and Entry to Israel Law, the state, represented by the Attorney General, insisted that security was the only objective behind the law. The state also added that even if the law was intended to achieve demographic objectives, it is still in conformity with Israel's [[Jewish and democratic state|Jewish and democratic]] definition, and thus constitutional. In a 2012 ruling by the Supreme Court on the issue, some of the judges on the panel discussed demography, and were inclined to accept that demography is a legitimate consideration in devising family reunification policies that violate the right to family life.<ref>{{cite journal | url=http://ssrn.com/abstract=2330291 | title=Love Suspended | date=12 February 2013 | last=Masri | first=Mazen | journal=Social & Legal Studies | volume=22 | issue=3 | pages=309–334 | issn=0964-6639 | doi=10.1177/0964663912472095| s2cid=145119571 }}</ref>