Ben-Gvir wants to change the Law of Return
Otzma Yehudi party leader Itamar Ben-Gvir wants the next government to end the state’s recognition of conversions carried out by the Reform movement.
MK Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of Israel’s Otzma Yehudit party, speaking to reporters in Jerusalem on Oct. 30, 2022. Photo by Shalev Shalom/TPS.
Ben-Gvir is negotiating a place in Israel’s governing coalition.
A statement issued by Otzma Yehudit said that Ben-Gvir wants to establish that “only a Jew who converted in accordance with Jewish law (halacha) would be eligible [for citizenship] under the Law of Return.”
Israel’s 1950 Law of Return enshrines the right of all Jews to obtain Israeli citizenship. In 1970, the last time the law was amended, the Knesset extended immigration rights to people with one Jewish grandparent and the same rights to that individual’s spouse and children. Jewish religious law recognizes as Jewish someone whose mother was Jewish or was converted by Orthodox authorities.
For purposes of citizenship, Israel, in recent years, has accepted the Reform movement’s conversions. Israel’s High Court of Justice also ruled last year that Reform conversions made in Israel should also be recognized. It wasn’t clear if Ben-Gvir’s demand would also apply to conversions by the Conservative movement.
Leaders of the parties in Prime Minister-Designate Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc have already demanded that the one-grandparent clause be removed from the Law of Return.
The Union for Progressive Judaism, ARZA, Masorti Australia and Mercaz-Masorti Australasia Inc issued the following statement:
“The not unexpected announcement that Otzma Yehudit party leader, Ben-Gvir, wishes to change the longstanding Law of Return to exclude the overwhelming majority of Jews by Choice from making Aliyah puts pressure on Prime Minister-Elect Netanyahu to move Israel away from being a home for all Jews to becoming a theocratic state.
The Law of Return allows any person with a Jewish grandparent to make Aliyah.
Combine this with the recent announcement from United Torah Judaism that they would wish to immediately pass a law making Supreme Court decisions subject to a Knesset override and you have an ugly cocktail that could render Israel a place from which most Jews are disenfranchised.
It is to be hoped that these calls, made as part of the hubris following an election victory, will be resisted by the Likud.”
