Arab-Israeli Labor MK Ibtisam Mara’ana stated on Sunday that she will be joining Ra’am and Meretz MKs Issawi Frej and Mossi Raz of Meretz in voting against the Family Reunification Law, which is rescheduled for a Knesset vote on Monday.

“The government isn’t capable of preserving our Jewish state,” Likud MK Mikki Zohar stated in response to Mara’ana’s announcement. “The following are the positions of the components of this dangerous coalition: Mansour Abbas and Ra’am – won’t support it. Ibtisam Mara’ana – won’t support it. Issawi Frej and Mossi Raz won’t support it.”

“The Joint Arab List, which is this government’s security net, will also not support it. This is a government that must fall.”

A Channel 12 News report on Sunday afternoon said that the coalition will likely delay the vote to avoid embarrassing itself by failing to pass the law as the opposition has indicated it will not assist the coalition in supporting the bill.

The Family Reunification Law, which bans Palestinians and infiltrators who marry Israelis from earning Israeli citizenship and has been approved every year since the Second Intifada, will expire in the next few weeks. The bill makes it more challenging for Arabs in the Palestinian Authority or Gaza Strip to gain Israeli citizenship for terror purposes through bogus marriages.

The law was enacted as a temporary provision rather than a permanent law in order to prevent the Supreme Court from repealing it.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)