The other day I looked at a draft of the proposed Iraqi Constitution, and found the following:
3. Any individual with another nationality (except for Israel) may obtain Iraqi nationality after a period of residency inside the borders of Iraq of not less than ten years for an Arab or twenty years for any other nationality, as long as he has good character and behavior, has no criminal judgment against him from the Iraqi authorities during the time of his residency on the territory of the Iraqi republic.
4. An Iraqi may have more than one nationality as long as the nationality is not Israeli.
It seems that that has been removed, and Publius Pundit has the details (via Instapundit):
One of the smallest yet significant changes is to provisions three and four of article one. As you may recall from the previous post, it excluded Israelis from candidacy for citizenship and prevented Iraqis from having dual citizenship with Israel. This was one of the most irresponsible and needless statements in the draft. You will all be happy to know that this “exception clause” has since been removed and now reads as follows:
3. a. An Iraqi may not be deprived of his nationality nor exiled or deported unless it is proven in a trial that he provided false essential information that resulted in his being granted nationality.
b. It is forbidden to try a person without citizenship; this shall be regulated by law.4. An Iraqi is allowed to bear more than one citizenship. An Iraqi who was stripped of his citizenship after February 8, 1968 for any reason is considered Iraqi and is entitled to regain [his citizenship].
A change that we can all agree is both appropriate and welcome. And, I would be remiss if I did not point out that Publius Pundit reported on the Israel exception in the previous draft on the 19th, a full day before I noticed it (and our posts are very similar, which just goes to show that in the blogospehere, just like life, there are few original ideas). To the blogroll with Publius Pundit to make sure that does not happen again.
At any rate, make sure you check out the rest of the new post though, and check out the other changes Publius Pundit has observed.
albedo
So, this means Israelis will be allowed to become Iraqi citizens and Iraqis will be allowed to have dual Israeli citizenship? Color me cynical, but this seems somehow unlikely.
Al Maviva
“See? I told you so.
This proves that Zionists run the U.S. government, and it’s puppet in Iraq.
Go Minutemen!”
SoCalJustice
He’s updated the post.
See HOW DISAPPOINTING
At the bottom of the post.
Indeed, how disappointing – yet unsurprising.