Nationality Nationality was ethnically defined by two Israeli Supreme Court decisions. In his 1972 decision Israeli Supreme Court, Justice Shimon Agranat affirmed that, “there is no Israeli nation separate from the Jewish people. The Jewish people are composed not only of those residing in Israel but of Diaspora Jewry”.134 Justice Agranat affirmed the distinction of ‘Jewish nationality’ and ‘Israeli citizenship’ and maintained that there is no Israeli nationality but only Jewish nationality.135 41 years later, in October 2013, the same Supreme Court rejected a request by a group of Israeli citizens called “I am Israeli” to declare that they were members of the Israeli people and to allow them to change the ethnic registration on their identity card from “Jewish” to “Israeli”.136 In 2013, Justice Hanan Melcer remarked that uniting national distinctions between Jewish, Arab or Druze, “was against both the Jewish nature and the democratic nature of the State”.137 Jewish migrtion The Law of Return (1950) and the Nationality Law (1952), privilege Jews and Jewish immigration. Any Jewish person can immigrate to the State of Israel and receive automatic citizenship. The law also applies to the children and grandchildren of Jews, as well as their spouses and the spouses of their children and grandchildren.138 134 George Raphael Tamarin v. State of Israel (HCJ 1972). 135 Ibid. 136 Revital Hovel, “Supreme Court Rejects Citizens’ Request to Change Nationality from ‘Jewish’ to ‘Israeli,’” Haaretz, October 3, 2013, http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.550241. 137 Neve Gordon, “High Court Rules: It Is Impossible to Be Israeli,” Aljazeera, October 21, 2013, http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/10/high-court-rules-it-impossible-beisraeli-201310201360824801.html. 138 Nadeem Shehadeh, “The Legal Framework of Second Class Citizenship” (BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights), accessed March 10, 2014, http://www.badil.org/en/almajdal/item/1874-the-legal-framework-of-second-class-citizenship?tmpl=component&print=1. 51

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