Immigration Minister Yaakov Edry says that he believes it is time to take another look at the definitions used in determining who has the right to immigrate to the Jewish State.
The Kadima MK told a conference in Jerusalem on Monday, “The law, in its current form, is being taken advantage of by people who forge documents.”
Edry echoed concerns expressed over the weekend by a party colleague, Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit, who took over the post as part of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s cabinet shuffle earlier this month.
Sheetrit said in an interview published in the Hebrew daily Yediot Achronot that Israel has “reached the point of no return,” vowing to “lead a revolution” in dealing with the issue.
“I recommend that we hold a debate on the Law of Return and see what can be done with it,” he said. “Today the law grants any grandchild of a Jew, even if he or she is not Jewish, the right to immigrate. We should give that some thought.”
The issue is not new. Orthodox Jewish leaders have fought vehemently to restrict eligibility under the Law of Return to include only those who are Jewish halakhically (by Torah law), meaning an individual who is Jewish in matrilineal descent, or converted by an Orthodox Beit Din (rabbinical court).
Thousands of non-Jewish immigrants have taken advantage of the law and there have been many reports of those who have forged documents to prove existence of that one Jewish grandparent in order to gain citizenship.
Moreover, an intermarried couple is accepted as an immigrant family, and the Jewish member of the family thus brings along a Gentile spouse, Gentile children if the mother is not Jewish, and possibly extended family members who are Gentiles as well.
Sheetrit pointed out that the “great majority” of recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union – some 70 percent, according to the Jerusalem Post -- are not halakhically Jewish, and called on the government to revamp the law.
“The starting position has to be not what these groups want, but what is right for the state,” he said.
Yisrael Beiteinu members were outraged at Sheetrit’s remarks, with one source close to party chairman Avigdor Lieberman saying the party would “reconsider its future” in the coalition if the government implemented the proposed changes. Yisrael Beiteinu’s rank and file is comprised primarily of Russian immigrants. “The immigrants are faithful citizens who pass the tests of loyalty by getting killed in disproportionate numbers serving the state in the IDF,” said the source.
“If Sheetrit wants a Jewish and Zionist state……. he should make Arabs like [former Israeli Arab MK] Azmi Bishara pass a loyalty oath, and not immigrants.”