Pressure has been mounting in recent days to establish the Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs in Israel’s 24th Knesset.
More than seven months have passed since the current government took office, and while the majority of statutory, special and secondary committees have been established, the Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee has been left behind.
This Monday, MK Yomtob Kalfon (Yamina) turned to Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy to demand that the committee be established.
“The Committee for Immigration, Absorption, and Diaspora Affairs is essential to ensure Israel’s ties with Jewish communities around the world and the welfare of our Jewish brothers and sisters,” he said.
In a letter to the Speaker sent by Kalfon and signed by registered committee members, MKs Alon Tal (Blue and White), Tatiana Mazarsky (Yesh Atid), Gaby Lasky (Meretz) and Evgeny Sova (Yisrael Beytenu), the MKs wrote: "Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, and immigration and absorption are the bedrock of Zionism. It cannot be that due to one dispute or another between the coalition and the opposition, immigrants and Diaspora Jews will be sent a message that they are not a priority of the Knesset.”
A letter with the same demand was sent simultaneously by the Center for Judaism and State Policy from the Hartman Institute and the Triguboff Institute to coalition chair MK Idit Silman (Yamina), and to opposition MK Yariv Levin (Likud).
"We know this is the result of a political struggle between the coalition and the opposition that includes a dispute over the composition of the committees and their division into various factions. We are not interested in getting into a political debate between the various camps. At the same time, we wish to express our objection and call on both parties to reach an agreement and establish the Knesset Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee as soon as possible," writes Tani Frank, Director of the Center for Judaism and State Policy at the Shalom Hartman Institute and Triguboff Institute.
According to the Center for Judaism and State Policy, the absence of a committee creates great difficulty for Knesset members to fulfill their responsibility as supervisors of the government's conduct on issues including a worsening crisis with Diaspora Jewry against the backdrop of a freeze on the Western Wall framework agreement, and other issues related to Judaism and the State; renewed outbreaks of antisemitic incidents such as the takeover of a synagogue in Colleyville; necessary preparations to absorb immigrants from the former Soviet Union, particularly in light of the current threat posed to Ukrainian Jews by rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine.