Yes, Palestinians can live in Israel, but under four very different legal statuses that determine almost everything about their rights and security. About 2.1 million are citizens with full legal standing. Hundreds of thousands more hold permanent residency in East Jerusalem. Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza generally live outside Israel and enter only with a permit, and those who marry Israelis face a separate, highly restrictive family unification track. Which category applies to a given person depends largely on where their family was living in 1948 and 1967.
Palestinian Citizens of Israel
Palestinians who remained inside Israel’s borders after the 1948 war eventually received full citizenship, and their descendants make up roughly 21 percent of the country’s population today. Citizenship is governed by the Nationality Law, 5712-1952, which recognizes acquisition by return, residence, birth, naturalization, or government grant.1Refworld. Israel: Nationality Law, 5712-1952
A Palestinian citizen of Israel votes in Knesset elections, can run for office, holds an Israeli passport, and travels without special entry permits. They are enrolled in the national health insurance system and receive social security on the same statutory basis as any other citizen. Their status cannot be revoked through administrative discretion alone.
Legal equality does not always mean equal treatment. The 2018 Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People declares that “the realization of the right to national self-determination in the State of Israel is exclusive to the Jewish People” and downgraded Arabic from an official language to one with “special status.”2The Knesset. Basic Law: Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People Housing access is a persistent friction point: the Admissions Committees Law lets small towns screen applicants for “social suitability,” and roughly 13 percent of land in Israel is owned by the Jewish National Fund and administered by the Israel Lands Authority, historically reserved for Jewish citizens. Housing benefits linked to military service also create a gap, since most Palestinian citizens are exempt from serving.
Permanent Residents of East Jerusalem
When Israel captured and later annexed East Jerusalem in 1967, the Palestinians already living there were not given citizenship. They were classified as permanent residents under the Entry into Israel Law, 5712-1952, which treats them as non-citizens authorized to live in the country indefinitely.3United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Israel Law No. 5712-1952 – Entry into Israel Law
Permanent residents can live and work anywhere in Israel, join the national health insurance program, and collect social security for retirement or disability. They vote in Jerusalem municipal elections but not in national Knesset elections. Instead of an Israeli passport, they carry a travel document, sometimes called a laissez-passer, that does not carry the visa exemptions Israeli citizens enjoy. Many countries an Israeli citizen enters freely require a separate visa for a laissez-passer holder.4Embassy of Israel in London. Application for Israeli Laissez Passer for Foreigners
The Center-of-Life Requirement
Permanent residency in East Jerusalem is conditional in a way citizenship is not. Authorities can evaluate whether a resident maintains a “center of life” inside the city, a doctrine that looks at where the person lives, where their children go to school, where they pay utility bills, and where they work. Moving even to a nearby West Bank town for an extended period can trigger revocation.
Between 1967 and 2023, Israel revoked the permanent residency of nearly 14,900 East Jerusalem Palestinians on grounds that their status had “expired of itself.” In 2023 alone, 61 residents lost their status, with 58 of them outside Israel at the time. Once revoked, the right to live in Jerusalem and access Israeli social services disappears.
Upgrading to Citizenship
An East Jerusalem permanent resident can apply to naturalize as an Israeli citizen. The process requires at least three years of permanent residency, demonstrated Hebrew proficiency, and renunciation of any other nationality. Approval rates have historically been low and processing runs for years. Many residents also decline to apply on political grounds, viewing the application as implicit recognition of Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem.
Palestinians From the West Bank and Gaza
Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza are not citizens or residents of Israel and have no automatic right to enter. The Entry into Israel Law requires a visa or permit for any non-national, and military orders governing the territories layer additional permit requirements on top.3United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Israel Law No. 5712-1952 – Entry into Israel Law Entry without a valid permit is illegal and can lead to detention and deportation.
Work permits are the largest legal channel. Before October 2023, over 100,000 Palestinians from the West Bank held permits to work inside Israel or in Israeli settlements. That number collapsed after the war in Gaza began, and roughly 14,000 workers held active permits as of mid-2025. The process runs through the Israeli military’s coordination body (COGAT) and local District Civil Liaison offices. Applicants must pass security screening, provide biometric data, and receive a magnetic card. The card is a prerequisite for a permit but does not guarantee one, and permits are typically tied to a specific employer and must be renewed periodically.
Gaza residents face tighter restrictions. Even before the current conflict, permits for Gaza Palestinians to enter Israel were rare and mostly limited to urgent medical cases or a small number of traders. The ongoing military operations have effectively closed this channel.
Marrying an Israeli: Family Unification
A Palestinian from the West Bank or Gaza who marries an Israeli citizen or permanent resident cannot use marriage as a normal route to residency. The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Order), originally passed in 2003 and re-enacted in 2022, bars the Interior Minister from granting citizenship or standard residency to inhabitants of the West Bank or Gaza.5Adalah. The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Order), 5782-2022 It was framed as a temporary security measure during the Second Intifada and has been renewed for over two decades.
Narrow exceptions apply, but only above strict age thresholds. A man from the West Bank or Gaza must be over 35 and a woman over 25 before the Interior Minister may even consider granting a residency permit to prevent spousal separation.5Adalah. The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Order), 5782-2022 Meeting the threshold is not approval. The applicant must also pass a security screening and prove the marriage is genuine, with documentation of a shared household and joint finances.
Even when approved, the ceiling is real. The law prohibits granting these applicants full citizenship or permanent residency. What they receive is a renewable permit, and the renewals continue indefinitely. A spouse who enters through this track never reaches the same legal standing as someone with citizenship or ordinary permanent residency. The law also caps humanitarian permits, benchmarked to the number approved in 2019.
Applications go through the Population and Immigration Authority. The Israeli sponsor files forms with detailed personal histories; originals must be presented in person; and the file then moves into a security screening handled by intelligence services that can last months or years. An approved applicant first receives a short-term stay permit, which through successive renewals may be upgraded to a longer-duration permit that provides health coverage and work authorization. Missed renewals or incomplete paperwork can reset or end the process.
How the Statuses Compare
The practical differences between these categories shape daily life:
- Citizens vote in all elections, hold Israeli passports, and access all social services. Their status cannot be revoked administratively.
- East Jerusalem permanent residents access health insurance and social security and vote in municipal elections only. They carry a travel document with limited international recognition and risk losing status if they move outside Jerusalem.
- West Bank and Gaza permit holders enter Israel only with a valid permit tied to a specific purpose, hold no Israeli social benefits, and face periodic renewal and security screening.
- Family unification applicants from the West Bank or Gaza receive renewable permits but are legally barred from citizenship or permanent residency.
A Palestinian citizen of Israel can buy a home in Tel Aviv and vote for prime minister. A Palestinian from Bethlehem, eight miles south of Jerusalem, needs a military-issued permit to cross a checkpoint for a day of work. Identical ethnic and cultural identity, radically different legal standing, determined largely by which side of a line someone’s family happened to be on in 1948 or 1967.