After 30 Odd Years of Peace

On June 5, the Egyptian Supreme Court handed down a ruling, giving the final green light to the new law stripping all Egyptian men married to Jewish Israeli women of their Egyptian citizenship – Muslim or Christian Israeli women can still marry Egyptians without their husbands losing their citizenship.

The law could be criticized for being discriminatory, but Nabil el-Wahash, the lawyer who initiated the law, explains that it is in fact a necessary step to protect Egyptian national security. Since offspring of such a union would be Jewish, and the Israeli Law of Return states that any Jew is eligible for Israeli citizenship, they might take Israeli citizenship and maybe even serve in the Israeli armed forces, heaven forefend.

The Supreme Court agreed with Mr. el-Wahash, and ruled that Egyptian men married to Israeli Jewish women should be stripped of their citizenship.

I’m shocked and appalled by this flawed law and small-minded ruling by the court. This law does in no way protect the Egyptian national security in a satisfactory manner. Israeli men can in fact also transfer their Israeli citizenship to their offspring, even though their children aren’t halakhically Jewish. Furthermore, Jews all over the world could potentially accept Israeli citizenship at any moment – for themselves and for their children.

How can the Egyptian legislators allow such a glaring breach in the nation’s security? The only way to prevent “a new generation of Egyptians ‘disloyal to Egypt and the Arab world'”, is to forbid Egyptian citizens to marry Jews, any Jews, altogether.