Rebutting party member, Gantz opposes altering Law of Return’s ‘grandchild clause’

Days after a member of Benny Gantz’s National Unity party said he would support constraining Israel’s Law of Return to close the door to possible non-Jewish immigration, Gantz says he supports maintaining the law establishing Diaspora Judaism’s right to Israeli citizenship as it is.

“I think we need to keep the grandchild clause,” Gantz says in response to reporter questions at the outset of his party’s Monday faction meeting.

Lawmaker Matan Kahana, until recently religious affairs minister, said on a Saturday evening news show that he supports the incoming coalition’s plans to alter the Law of Return to reduce non-Jewish immigration and preserve Israel’s Jewish character.

Far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties in the expected incoming coalition have pushed to cancel the law’s grandchild clause, which maintains citizenship eligibility for the grandchildren of Jews.

Gantz adds that Kahana’s statements don’t reflect National Unity’s position, but rather “represent Matan Kahana’s opinion.”