Yeah, yeah, skip the Likkudnik jokes, OK?

[avram]

Just to prove that the world is stranger than you can imagine: A story in Haaretz about Israeli neo-Nazis. They’re Russian immigrants who hate Jews and deny that the Holocaust happened. They also hate Arabs, Moroccans, immigrants from Muslim former-Soviet republics — they’ve got a lot of hate to go around. (Link via Ken MacLeod)

Why live in Israel? Probably just to get the hell out of post-civilized Russia. Israel’s Law of Return grants the right to immigrate to anyone with so much as a single Jewish grandparent in their ancestry — the same standard the Nazis used to decide who was Jewish enough to send to the camps. This is a broader standard than religious Judaism uses to determine who’s Jewish — anyone whose mother is Jewish. (Reform Judaism uses a slightly broader standard, but Israel uses the Orthodox rules.) So these Russians can immigrate to Israel even though they aren’t actually Jewish.

According to the text of the law, as far as I can tell, these people could be denied immigrant status if their neo-Nazi activities were discovered when they applied: “shall be granted to every Jew who has expressed his desire to settle in Israel, unless the Minister of Interior is satisfied that the applicant[...] is engaged in an activity directed against the Jewish people”.

Comments

[elisem.livejournal.com]

Yiiy.

(also, thank you for reminding me to go put Black 47 on!)

[barking-iguana.livejournal.com]

I remember in Hebrew School they taught me that if you had one great-great-great-grandfather who was Jewish, the Nazis considered you Jewish. I don't know about 5th-generation female ancestors. I also don't know if there was any basis in fact for what I was taught. I'bve heard the one-grandparent rule before. Maybe it depended on exactly when, where, and for what purpose.

[barking-iguana.livejournal.com]

I see that at least in this English translation of Israeli law, the word "Palestinian" had legal recognition.

Acquisition of Nationality by Naturalization: adults may acquire Israeli citizenship by naturalization at the discretion of the Minister of the Interior and subject to a number of requirements, including:
...
3. they must have some knowledge of Hebrew (former Palestinian citizens are exempt from this provision)

That refers to Arabs whose residence pre-dates the end of the Mandate.

[poonafish.livejournal.com]

right on.