CITIZENSHIP LAW OF ISRAEL

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                    Acquisition of Israeli Nationality


Israel's Nationality Law relates to persons born in Israel or resident
therein, as well as to those wishing to settle in the country, regardless
of race, religion, creed, sex or political belief. Citizenship may be
acquired by:

Birth
The Law of Return
Residence
Naturalization


Acquisition of Nationality by Birth is granted to:

1. Persons who were born in Israel to a mother or a father who are Israeli
citizens.

2. Persons born outside Israel, if their father or mother holds Israeli
citizenship, acquired either by birth in Israel, according to the Law of
Return, by residence, or by naturalization.

3. Persons born after the death of one of their parents, if the late
parent was an Israeli citizen by virtue of the conditions enumerated in 1.
and 2. above at the time of death.

4. Persons born in Israel, who have never had any nationality and subject
to limitations specified in the law, if they:

   (a) apply for it in the period between their 18th and 25th birthday and

   (b) have been residents of Israel for five consecutive years,
immediately preceding the day of the filing of their application.


Acquisition of Nationality according to the Law of Return

On the establishment of the State, its founders proclaimed “...the renewal
of the Jewish State in the Land of Israel, which would open wide the gates
of the homeland to every Jew...”. In pursuance of this tenet, the State of
Israel has absorbed survivors of the Holocaust, refugees from the
countries in which they had resided, as well as many thousands of Jews who
came to settle in Israel of their own volition.

The Law of Return (1950) grants every Jew wherever he may be, the right to
come to Israel as an "oleh" (a Jew immigrating to Israel) and become an
Israeli citizen.

For the purposes of this Law, "Jew" means a person who was born of a
Jewish mother, or has converted to Judaism and is not a member of another
religion.

Israeli citizenship becomes effective on the day of arrival in the country
or of receipt of an oleh’s certificate, whichever is later. A person may
declare, within three months, that he/she does not wish to become a
citizen.

An oleh's certificate may be denied to persons who:

1. engage in activity directed against the Jewish people;
2. may endanger public health or the security of the state;
3. have a criminal past, likely to endanger public welfare.

Since 1970 the right to immigrate under this law has been extended to
include the child and the grandchild of a Jew, the spouse of a child of a
Jew and spouse of the grandchild of a Jew. The purpose of this amendment
is to ensure the unity of families, where intermarriage had occurred; it
does not apply to persons who had been Jews and had voluntarily changed
their religion.


Acquisition of Nationality by Residence

Special provision is made in the Nationality Law for former citizens of
British Mandatory Palestine. Those who remained in Israel from the
establishment of the State in 1948 until the enactment of the Nationality
Law of 1952, became Israeli citizens by residence or by return.

According to an amendment (1980), further possibilities to acquire
citizenship by residence, were included in the law.


Acquisition of Nationality by Naturalization

Adults may acquire Israeli citizenship by naturalization, at the
discretion of the Minister of the Interior and subject to a number of
requirements, such as:

1. they must have resided in Israel for three years out of the five years
preceding the day of submission of the application.

2. they are entitled to reside in Israel permanently and have settled or
intend to settle in Israel;

3. they have renounced their prior nationality, or have proved that they
will cease to be foreign nationals upon becoming Israeli citizens.

The Minister of the Interior may exempt an applicant from some of these
requirements.
.