Egypt to strip citizenship of men marrying Israeli women

CAIRO - An Egyptian court has ruled that men who marry Israeli women will be stripped of their citizenship, a media report said.

The State Council’s Supreme Administrative Court Saturday upheld a ruling issued by a first instance administrative court on dropping the Egyptian nationality from men who are married to Israeli women, Xinhua reported citing a statement from Egypt’s official MENA news agency.

There cannot be any appeal against the ruling, the court said.

The court asked the interior ministry to send the files of Egyptians married to Arab Israelis and Jewish Israelis to the cabinet.

It said the cabinet would have to see whether to strip the men of their Egyptian citizenship or not and that each case should be debated separately.

This ruling is meant to protect Egypt’s youths and its national security, lawyer Nabil al-Wahsh, who took the case to the court in the first place, was quoted as saying.

“The ruling is so important as it comes at a time Israel is carrying on with its attacks against peace lovers, the latest of which was its raid on the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla,” Wahsh said.

Over 30,000 Egyptian men are married to Israeli women, Wahsh claimed.