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Wednesday, July 9, 2025
Bill to limit Law of Return fails even as Haredi parties break boycott to vote for it
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
A controversial bill to amend the Law of Return in order to prevent non-Jews who have at least one Jewish grandparent from immigrating to Israel and obtaining citizenship fails in a preliminary reading in the Knesset 18-54.
Despite the Haredi parties’ ongoing boycott of coalition legislation, Religious Services Minister Michael Malkieli (Shas) announced ahead of the vote that he would support Noam MK Avi Maoz’s legislation, which had failed to receive backing from the Ministerial Committee on Legislation on Sunday.
Both Shas and United Torah Judaism are currently boycotting coalition bills in a bid to pressure Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein to finally present his revised Haredi conscription bill to lawmakers.
If passed, the bill would have amended the Law of Return, removing a clause allowing any grandchild of a Jew to immigrate even if they themselves are not Jewish.
Arguing against the bill, Yisrael Beytenu MK Evgeny Sova said that many of those critical to maintaining Jewish communities abroad are the grandchildren of Jews and that changing the Law of Return would harm many in the Diaspora.
This bill would tell them “you are not part of the Jewish family,” he said.
Hitting back at critics who argued that his bill was racist and devalued soldiers fighting for Israel who are not Jewish according to Orthodox halacha, Maoz told lawmakers that he would not engage in “demagoguery” at the expense of the troops.
The Times of Israel Community.