More than mere technical regulations that determine immigration and naturalization processes, citizenship laws are instruments that can shed light on major social issues. Most contemporary understandings of the reasons and justifications for enacting Israel`s citizenship laws contend that concerns over the Jewishness of the new state took precedence over all other considerations. Although the ethnic principle of the Jewish state was always one of its core values, in this study I show that Knesset Members also held republican values.
Section 4 of the Israeli Citizenship Law (1952) adds naturalization as one of several routes for acquiring Israel citizenship. This process does not deal with Jewish or Palestinians residents of Israel. According to the republican civic tradition, acquiring Israeli citizenship requires residence, active participation, and cultural assimilation. Moreover, according the same republican principle, military service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), or the death of a child serving in the IDF, would confer exemptions from the full list of requirements toward naturalization. Amendments 5 (1987) and 8 (2004) also discuss the abovementioned decree.
Subsequent to my analysis of the law, the parliamentary debates preceding its legislation, and its amendments, I argue that this provision was legislated mainly for symbolic reasons. Since only Israeli citizens or Jews from the Diaspora serve in the IDF, the exemption has little practical impact. Thus, by adding this provision, Knesset Members wanted to emphasize the importance of republican participation, particularly military service, as the ultimate sacrifice for the Israeli state.