Coalition revives contentious bid to limit Law of Return; this time, it may pass
An amendment that would deny people with only one Jewish grandparent the automatic right to immigrate to Israel is expected to be approved when it is discussed again in two months
Zev Stub is the Times of Israel's Diaspora Affairs correspondent.
The government is again debating a contentious change to the Law of Return that would deny people with only one Jewish grandparent the automatic right to immigrate to Israel.
The proposal, which was made previously in late 2022 and early 2023 and was featured in coalition deals ahead of the formation of the current government, is expected to pass this time as it enjoys sufficient support from coalition members, according to Hebrew media reports.
Avi Maoz, head of the far-right Noam Party, proposed the amendment to the law in a heated Knesset session Wednesday, days after parliament reconvened from a monthlong recess. It is set to be discussed again in two months.
The Law of Return was formulated in 1950, two years after the State of Israel was established, giving every Jew from around the world the automatic right to immigrate to the Jewish State. “Every Jew has the right to come to this country as an oleh [immigrant],” it states.
For years, lawmakers disagreed on how to define exactly who is considered a Jew for this purpose. While Orthodox religious authorities traditionally only recognize as Jewish those who have a Jewish mother, or those who converted to Judaism in an Orthodox court, the law was expanded in 1970 to also allow any grandchild of a Jew to immigrate, even if they themselves are not Jewish. The 1970 amendment also allows for the legal immigration of non-Jewish spouses of Jews.
A Supreme Court ruling in November 2023 added that widows of children or grandchildren of Jews are also entitled to immigrant status.
Maoz also proposed a similar motion in 2023. The change would wreak havoc for new immigrants from Russia, where the majority of new olim have come from in recent years, of whom many are not considered Jewish according to religious law.
The law as it currently stands “allows it to be exploited by many who have severed all ties with the Jewish people and their traditions, and in effect empties the law of its original intention,” Maoz’s proposal states. Repealing the grandchild clause would “prevent one of the greatest absurdities in the Israeli law book — that the most explicit Jewish law gives sweeping permission for non-Jews to enter the country’s gates,” he wrote.
Debating the proposal in the Knesset, the United Torah Judaism party’s Deputy Transportation Minister Uri Maklev charged that the law currently allows for religious fraud. “There could be a person who goes to church every Sunday with his parents, who comes and says he wants to enter as a Jew.”
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi (Likud) added that the purpose of the 1970 amendment was to provide a haven for anyone persecuted for being Jewish. “No one dreamed that complete gentiles would come for economic purposes, like the kind that [Yisrael Beytenu MK Avigdor] Liberman brings, who receive a package of benefits and then return home after two days.”
Liberman shot back, arguing that real Jews serve in the IDF, unlike many in the ultra-Orthodox community.
“7,000 soldiers whose father or grandfather were Jewish stood up for the country, fighting and defending us, and dozens of them fell in the Iron Swords War,” he wrote on X, using the IDF’s official name for the current war. “In their actions, they proved that they are much more Jewish than any draft-evader who harms Israel’s security.”
Democrats MK Gilad Kariv accusing Karhi of being a “racist,” posting on X that “the contribution of 1.2 million Russian-speaking Israelis to Israel’s society, to national security, and to Judaism is priceless. It is dozens of times greater than the contribution of this group of hatred, division and incitement, of which Karhi is one of the leaders.”
Yesh Atid MK Vladimir Beliak, a Russian-born immigrant, also responded harshly.
“Forty immigrant soldiers from the former Soviet Union were killed in the war, and over 400 were injured,” he wrote on X. “At least 18 immigrant citizens were killed, and five were kidnapped in Gaza. The Hamas terrorists did not ask under which article they immigrated to Israel. None of this prevents Karhi from slandering the immigrant community.”
Most coalition parties are expected to vote in favor of rescinding the grandchild clause when it is brought back for debate in two months, according to a report by the public broadcaster Kan. The only obstacle to the legislation is a coalition agreement that gives veto power to Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and his New Hope party. However, Sa’ar’s party is on the verge of merging with Likud, at which point he will lose that veto power, the report said.
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