Who Can Get Israeli Citizenship?
Israel’s Citizenship Law 5712-1952 sets 4 routes to citizenship, and about 95% of residents acquired it on one day in 1952.
About 95% of the population then living in Israel, roughly a million and a half people, Jewish and Arab alike, acquired Israeli citizenship automatically on 14 July 1952, the day the Citizenship Law 5712-1952 entered into force, on the Ministry of Justice’s own published account of the statute it administers. The Ministry records four routes in the law: automatic acquisition by residents, acquisition by return, acquisition by birth in Israel to an Israeli parent, and naturalisation by choice. The Ministry also records that the automatic route was not open to everyone present, but required three conditions together.
| Figure | What it counts | Who published it | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Routes to citizenship set out in the Citizenship Law 5712-1952 | Ministry of Justice of Israel | Law in force from 14 July 1952 |
| About 95% | Share of the population living in Israel that acquired citizenship automatically when the law came into force | Ministry of Justice of Israel | 14 July 1952 |
| About 1.5 million | People acquiring citizenship on that day, Jewish and Arab alike | Ministry of Justice of Israel | 14 July 1952 |
| 3 | Conditions required together for the automatic route | Ministry of Justice of Israel | Statehood to 14 July 1952 |
| 1 March 1952 | Deadline for registration as a resident under the Residents Registry Ordinance | Ministry of Justice of Israel | 1952 |
| 4 years | Period in which the State had no legal determination of who its citizens were | Ministry of Justice of Israel | 1948 to 1952 |
| 2 | Supreme Court judgments construing the contested third condition | Supreme Court of Israel | 1953 |
The Citizenship Law 5712-1952 sets 4 routes to citizenship
The Ministry of Justice, in its own published account of the law it administers, lists four routes and no others. It also records that the Citizenship Law and the Law of Return were drafted together and then deliberately separated, the Law of Return’s essence being a distinction between Jews and non-Jews for the purpose of immigration, while the Citizenship Law was intended as a general law blind to those considerations. The Ministry’s account names naturalisation by choice as a route and does not set out its conditions, so the residence, language and renunciation requirements are not stated in that record.
| Route | What it turns on |
|---|---|
| Automatic acquisition by residents | Residence and registration when the law entered into force in 1952 |
| Acquisition by return | Immigration under the Law of Return 5710-1950 |
| Acquisition by birth in Israel | Birth in Israel to an Israeli parent |
| Naturalisation by choice | Application, on conditions the Ministry’s account does not set out |
Source: Ministry of Justice of Israel, 2019, Roots in Law project.
About 95% acquired citizenship automatically on 14 July 1952
The Ministry of Justice records that about 95% of the population then living in Israel, roughly a million and a half people, became citizens on the single day the law entered into force, and that the statute applied retroactively to the day the State was established. Those two figures reach the Ministry’s account through its own footnotes to 1952 press reports rather than through a statistical series. The Ministry also records the four years that preceded it.
- For four years, from 1948 to 1952, the State had no legal determination of who its citizens were, on the Ministry of Justice’s account.
- Two Knesset elections were held in that period, in January 1949 and July 1951, without voters or elected members being citizens.
- The judges, ministers, Prime Minister and President were not citizens either.
- The bill’s explanatory notes describe the Citizenship Law as “one of the Basic Laws”, and the Minister of the Interior presented it to the Knesset as a law guaranteeing full equality in rights and obligations for all citizens of the State. It is ordinary legislation, not a Basic Law.
The automatic route required registration by 1 March 1952
The Ministry of Justice records three conditions that had to be met together for automatic acquisition, and registration was the first of them. A person had to be registered as a resident under the Residents Registry Ordinance by 1 March 1952, had to be an Israeli resident, and had, from the establishment of the State to the law’s entry into force, to have been in Israel or to have entered it lawfully. Israeli law on equality between citizens sits after that gate, not at it.
Ka’adan calls the Law of Return a special key
The Supreme Court held, at paragraph 31 of HCJ 6698/95 Ka’adan v Israel Land Administration, delivered 8 March 2000, that “members of the Jewish nation were granted a special key to enter (see the Law of Return-5710-1950), but once a person has lawfully entered the home, he enjoys equal rights with all other household members.” The same paragraph states that the values of the State of Israel as a Jewish state would not justify discrimination by the State between its citizens on the basis of religion or nationality. The Knesset published Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People in 2018, in an English translation the Knesset itself labels unofficial, whose clause 5 provides that the State “shall be open to Jewish immigration, and the ingathering of the exiles.”
The third condition was contested and 2 judgments construed it
The Ministry of Justice records that the third condition was attacked during enactment as preventing part of the Arab population from acquiring citizenship, the argument turning on people who left during or before the 1948 war and returned unlawfully. The Ministry states that the government said it did not intend to strip citizenship from a large group among the Arab population, and that the Minister of Justice said an Interior Ministry official had been appointed to ensure the automatic naturalisation of the Arab population was fair and proper. Those are statements recorded by the Ministry in its own account of the enactment.
| Judgment | Report | Year |
|---|---|---|
| HCJ 112/52 Khalaf v Minister of the Interior | PD 7 185 | 1953 |
| HCJ 112/53 Nakara v Minister of the Interior | PD 7 955 | 1953 |
Source: Supreme Court of Israel, as cited by the Ministry of Justice of Israel, 2019.
Which figures here come from the Ministry’s own account?
Every figure above is the Ministry of Justice’s own published account of the Citizenship Law 5712-1952, except the two 1953 judgments, which are Supreme Court records, and clause 5, which is the Knesset’s enacted text in a translation the Knesset labels unofficial. The 95% and the roughly 1.5 million are approximations as the Ministry prints them and are not a Central Bureau of Statistics series; do not multiply one by the other or restate either as exact. The Ministry’s account covers acquisition only, so it carries nothing on revocation, on later amendments, or on the conditions of naturalisation today.
Questions readers ask
How many routes to citizenship does Israeli law set out?
The Ministry of Justice records four routes in the Citizenship Law 5712-1952: automatic acquisition by residents, acquisition by return, acquisition by birth in Israel to an Israeli parent, and naturalisation by choice.
When did the Citizenship Law come into force?
The Ministry of Justice records that the law entered into force on 14 July 1952 and applied retroactively to the day the State was established.
Did Arab residents acquire citizenship in 1952?
The Ministry of Justice records that about 95% of the population then living in Israel, Jewish and Arab alike, acquired citizenship automatically on 14 July 1952.
Who was left outside the automatic route?
The Ministry of Justice records that the automatic route required registration by 1 March 1952, Israeli residence, and presence in Israel or lawful entry between statehood and 14 July 1952.
Why is the Law of Return a separate law?
The Ministry of Justice records that the two laws were drafted together and deliberately separated, the Law of Return being a distinction between Jews and non-Jews for immigration and the Citizenship Law a general law.
What did the Supreme Court say about the Law of Return?
The Supreme Court held in Ka’adan, on 8 March 2000, that members of the Jewish nation were granted a special key to enter, and that once a person has lawfully entered he enjoys equal rights with all other household members.
Does the Nation-State Law deal with immigration?
The Knesset published the Basic Law in 2018, and clause 5 states that the State shall be open to Jewish immigration and the ingathering of the exiles.
Who was a citizen between 1948 and 1952?
The Ministry of Justice records that for four years the State had no legal determination of who its citizens were, and that two Knesset elections were held in that period.
Was the Citizenship Law a Basic Law?
The Ministry of Justice records that the bill’s explanatory notes called it “one of the Basic Laws” and that the Minister of the Interior presented it that way. It is ordinary legislation.
Which courts construed the contested condition?
The Ministry of Justice records that the Supreme Court construed it in HCJ 112/52 Khalaf and HCJ 112/53 Nakara, both reported in 1953.
Does this record cover naturalisation requirements?
The Ministry of Justice names naturalisation by choice as a route and does not set out its conditions in that account, so no residence, language or renunciation requirement is stated here.
Does this record cover a Palestinian spouse of an Israeli?
No. That process runs under separate legislation and is covered in the record on Palestinian spouses and Israeli residency.
Sources
- Israeli Supreme Court, 2000. HCJ 6698/95 Ka’adan v. Israel Land Administration. Judgment of 8 March 2000. Official or primary record.
- Knesset, 2018. Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People. Knesset published English translation, labelled unofficial. Official or primary record.
- Ministry of Justice of Israel, 2019. The Citizenship Law, 5712-1952. Roots in Law project, gov.il. Official or primary record.
