Israel Takes First Step to Restrict Immigration of Christians
Episcopal News Service. July 10, 2002 [2002-174-4]
Israel has sparked a heated debate in the Jewish world by taking the first step to restrict immigration, following claims that many of those now moving to the region are Christians.
A committee of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, is supporting a bill that would end the so-called grandfather clause in the Law of Return that enables non-Jews to immigrate. The bill is being sponsored by the ultra-orthodox Jewish political groups in the wake of claims that hundreds of soldiers in the Israeli army have sworn allegiance to the state on the New Testament. Most of them are thought to come from the former Soviet Union.
'The Law of Return is one of the most important laws for defining the character of the State of Israel as the state of the Jews,' said Sallai Meridor who heads an agency that encourages more Jews to move to Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said that his goal is to bring one million more Jews to Israel.
Yet government figures show that slightly less than half of those who entered Israel in 2000 identified themselves as Jews, compared with 96 percent in 1990. Some officials are estimating that by 2010 only 4 percent of new immigrants will consider themselves Jews.
The debate also includes issues such as the loyalty of immigrant soldiers to Israel. Meridor pointed out that many of the immigrants whose loyalty was being questioned had in fact come from lands where for years the authorities had forced hem to suppress their religious identity, particularly when it was Jewish. 'Children of Jewish men were considered Jews there and when they came to Israel they suddenly found themselves defined as non-Jews.'