Cairo court wants Egyptian men married to Israelis stripped of their citizenship

08 June 2010

The Supreme Administrative Court  in Cairo has upheld a ruling urging the government to consider stripping Egyptian men who are married to Jewish Israeli women of their Egyptian citizenship. The ruling requires officials to send all such cases to the Cabinet, to be decided on an individual basis. Egypt’s Interior Ministry had appealed against the ruling of a lower court last year. The judges – whose ruling cannot be appealed – called on the government to determine whether to remove the nationality of the men concerned, as well as that of their children. The court also said officials should take into consideration whether a man married an Israeli Arab or a Jew when making its decision to revoke citizenship.

It is estimated that about 30,000 Egyptians are married to Israeli women. The lawyer who brought the case, Nabih el-Wahsh, said it was aimed at protecting Egyptian youth and Egypt's national security. He says that offspring of marriages between Egyptian men and Israeli women should not be allowed to perform military service. There should not be a new generation "disloyal to Egypt and the Arab world", he said.

A law enacted prior to the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel requires the stripping of citizenship of those who married Israelis that have served in the IDF, or openly embraced Zionism.

In 2005, former Grand Mufti Nasr Farid Wasel issued a fatwa, a religious edict, saying that Muslim Egyptians may not marry Israeli nationals, "whether Arab, Muslim, or Christian." 

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said that if the ruling was as reported it would constitute a grave decision that stood in complete opposition with the peace agreement between the two countries. Jerusalem has asked the Egyptian government for clarification.

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