Yuli Edelstein
Yuli EdelsteinOlivier Fitoussi/Flash90

The Knesset plenum marked Aliya Day this afternoon (Tuesday).

During the event, Likud MK Yuli Edelstein spoke out against the demand of several coalition parties to alter the Law of Return to ensure it only applies to people who are halakhically Jewish.

"Leave the Law of Return alone," said Edelstein. "I hear a lot of talk about the need and demand to change things in the Law of Return, the grandfather clause. I want to tell you this: if this happens, in five years there will be no Law of Return in the State of Israel, and this country is no longer the state of all its citizens."

Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy praised Edelstein's position, saying: "This house must not touch the Law of Return,"

MK Amichai Eliyahu (Otzma Yehudit) said in the Knesset plenum that the grandfather clause should be amended to ensure Israel remains a Jewish and democratic state.

Earlier this week, in an interview with NBC News, Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu during downplayed demands by all five of his future coalition allies that the Law of Return be amended to remove the grandfather clause, saying “I doubt” any such changes will be made in the next government.