Israel Supreme Court Upholds Limits on Palestinian Spouses

Israel's Supreme Court has rejected constitutional challenges to a law that makes it more difficult for Palestinians to get permission to live with their Israeli spouses inside Israel.

The ruling indicates that six judges ruled in favor of maintaining the law late Wednesday. Five were against.

Israel's parliament approved a law in 2003 that severely limits the ability of Palestinians to gain Israeli citizenship through marriage to an Israeli national. Civil rights organizations and Arab rights advocates filed the appeal in 2007.

"Human rights are not a prescription for national suicide," Justice Asher Grunis writes in the majority position.

About 20 percent of Israel's citizens are Arabs. They share common roots with the Palestinian community in the West Bank, Gaza and abroad, and frequently intermarry.