Yisrael Beytenu pans immigration plan they say ‘closes gates of aliyah to Israel’

Members of the Yisrael Beytenu party fume at what they say is the government’s failure to provide sufficient assistance to new immigrants from the former Soviet Union in a special session of the Knesset’s Immigration, Absorption, and Diaspora Affairs Committee.

“This is a government that plans to harm immigration from the former Soviet Union, and is already harming immigration from the former Soviet Union,” says party leader Avigdor Liberman.

The speakers at the special session, which was arranged by committee chairman Oded Forer, call out Immigration and Absorption Minister Ofir Sofer’s plans to invest large amounts of money toward encouraging immigration from the United States and France specifically, which they say discriminates against immigrants from other countries. (Sofer’s office denies any sort of discrimination, maintaining that he treats all immigrants equally.)

Though the session was open to all parliamentarians, only members of Yisrael Beytenu — which largely represents immigrants from the former Soviet Union — attended the meeting.

Forer, who has been a particularly harsh critic of the government’s immigration and absorption efforts, also notes that the government has yet to resolve a long-standing shortage of Hebrew classes for new immigrants and has cut off a stipend that was issued to immigrants from the former Soviet Union who arrived in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year. The government is also working to restrict the Law of Return, to cut a section that permits anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent to immigrate.

“The government’s actions are, in practice, reducing and closing the gates of aliyah to Israel,” Forer says, using the Hebrew term for immigration to Israel. “It seems that this government has decided to harm aliyah and immigrants to the State of Israel.”