The Knesset then passed a new law preserving the family unification restrictions that applied to Palestinians from the OPT, and additionally denying family unification for spouses that are citizens or residents of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq or Iran – all considered "enemy states" according to Israeli law.

The Palestinian population registry and all its data is controlled by Israel. The Palestinian Authority has no authority to grant citizenship or residency, as established by the Oslo agreements.

There are also considerable differences in Israel concerning the status of citizens. Former member of Knesset Azmi Bishara has said that there are two kinds of citizenship in Israel: Arabs that happened to remain in Israel in 1948 were given “incidental” citizenship, whereas Jews are granted “essential” citizenship as a means of maintaining a demographic Jewish majority.