Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked intends to bring the Citizenship Law to the Knesset for approval this week.
"The appeals against citizenship laws have been removed by the government. The laws will be put to a vote in the Knesset this week. Over 100 MK support this law that is essentially an important law for state security and the preservation of its Jewish identity," Shaked wrote on Twitter.
At the cabinet meeting, the minister was attacked by Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, who claimed that there was no need for a law if the minister had dealt with all the approval requests before her. Shaked said she would approve requests sparingly until the law is passed.
Shaked added that she had received a request from the head of the Shabak who wanted the law to be advanced quickly.
Meretz and Blue and White voted against MK Simcha Rotman's freedom of vote measure, but the other parties in the government are in favor of the move and it seems that the coalition will be given freedom of vote, much to the chagrin of the Meretz and Ra'am representatives, so that everyone will vote according to their conscience.
Other members of the government also commented on the law. Minister Yoaz Hendel said, "I am in favor of unity despite the disagreements, but there is a crossing of a line here. The government has agreed on a status quo, not to annex or give up territory. To reject the citizenship law is to give that up. It is an 18-year-old procedure. There are other Zionist laws that stem from Israel being a Jewish nation-state. such as the Law of Return, Settlement, Military Service and Immigrant Absorption. It is impossible to accept what Nitzan said that this was a racist law. There are immigration policies in democracies. To oppose our immigration policy is to act in the opposite direction and against the Zionist interest."