http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/article.asp?id=62044&mador=1&datee=11/29/99
Monday, November 29, 1999
Absorption Ministry considers
limiting non-Jewish aliyah
By Yair Sheleg, Ha'aretz Correspondent
A recent Immigration and Absorption Ministry
report is proposing a change in the Law of Return
to reduce the number of non-Jews immigrating to
Israel.
The report, which was prepared by a group of
senior ministry officials as their final project
while attending the Mendel school for senior
state workers, includes proposals to allow
immigration rights only to the non-Jewish
children and spouses of Jews, but not their
non-Jewish grandchildren, who may immigrate under
the present law.
Under the changes, the grandchildren would be
allowed to enter the country and become
naturalized, but only within the framework of the
Law of Entry, which is valid for everyone and
does not grant automatic citizenship. Other
proposals include:
* The adult children of non-Jewish grandchildren
of Jews would not be allowed to immigrate, even
under the Law of Entry, which currently allows
even great grandchildren to enter.
* Only children born to new converts after their
conversion would be eligible to immigrate under
the Law of Return, which today allows all of the
convert's children and grandchildren to
immigrate.
* Part of the absorption financial package
intended to help immigrants make ends meet would
be allocated, with the immigrant's consent, to
studying at ulpan and for Judaism classes in
general.
* Naturalization for those entering under the Law
of Entry would not be automatic, as is the case
today, but would be granted only after the
applicant passes a number of tests, including on
the language, history, geography and politics of
Israel.
In explaining their reasons for the proposed
changes, the report's authors point to data on
the rate of non-Jewish immigration from former
Soviet Union countries. According to the
officials, the percentage of non-Jews among
immigrants of the former Soviet Union has
consistently risen since the wave of mass aliyah
began in 1989. During 1999, 57 percent of the
immigrants were non-Jewish, and a sampling of 100
new immigrants found that 75 were not Jewish, and
had arrived under the Law of Return.
The report also presents the case of a Jewish
immigrant who "made ten non-Jewish family member
eligible for immigration, five under the Law of
Return, and the other five under the Law of
Entry."
And there is more: A study of potential
immigration of those still living in former
Soviet countries showed that the number of
remaining Jews stood at 540,000, while the number
of persons eligible to immigrate was almost
double that at 1,046,000.
The report's authors point out that the impetus
to limit non-Jewish aliyah was the fear that this
group would eventually align itself with
non-Jewish citizens within the state and demand
to change the Jewish character of the state.
Immigration and Absorption Minister Yuli Tamir
said yesterday that "from a political standpoint,
it's not possible to change the Law of Return
today. It will cause so much instability as to be
unviable" Later Tamir told Ha'aretz that she
believed a change in the current law was not only
unrealistic, but also improper, due to historic
and ethical considerations
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