From the Liveblog of
Monday, September 1, 2025
Liberman slams Avi Maoz for criticizing Elkin’s appointment as head of Nativ
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"
Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman slams far-right lawmaker Avi Maoz after he claimed that minister Ze’ev Elkin’s appointment as the minister in charge of Nativ, the government office tasked with assessing citizenship eligibility for people from the former Soviet Union, will flood Israel with non-Jews.
Citing Elkin’s opposition to Maoz’s recently failed bill that sought to deny non-Jews the right to immigrate to Israel even if they have at least one Jewish grandparent, the sole MK representing the anti-LGBTQ, misogynistic Noam party claimed that the government decision yesterday to put Elkin in charge of the agency will “ensure the removal of all barriers and thereby facilitate the arrival of tens of thousands of gentiles to the country.”
Maoz quit his position as a deputy minister in March and left the coalition in July. During his time as a member of the government, he headed a Jewish National Identity Office which oversaw Nativ.
While Elkin, an Orthodox lawmaker who grew up in Soviet Ukraine, did not appear to respond, Liberman, whose party represents many Russian-speaking Israelis, lambasts Maoz.
“Avi Maoz claims that most immigrants from the USSR are ‘goyim.’ The truth is that they are the ones fighting in the IDF, working, paying taxes, and contributing to high-tech, medicine and culture. They are more Israeli than all the draft dodgers,” Liberman tweets.
In 2019, for the first time ever, Israel announced that Jewish immigrants to Israel were outnumbered by non-Jewish immigrants due to large numbers of newcomers from the former Soviet Union.
The Times of Israel Community.