Russian-speakers who want to make aliya could need DNA test
Prime Minister’s Office says would-be immigrants from former Soviet Union may be asked to prove Jewish bloodline
Young immigrants from Russia at the Putin Bar in Jerusalem on November 18, 2008.
A number of people from the
former Soviet Union wishing to immigrate to Israel could be subjected to
DNA testing to prove their Jewishness, the Prime Minister’s Office said
Sunday.
The policy was reported in Maariv on Monday, one day after the Israeli paper revealed that a 19 year old woman from the former Soviet Union was required to take the test to qualify for a Birthright Israel trip.
The
Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that many Jews from the FSU who were
born out-of-wedlock can be required to bring DNA confirmation of Jewish
heritage in order to be allowed to immigrate as a Jew.
A
source in the PMO told Maariv that the consul’s procedure, approved by
the legal department of the Interior Ministry, states that a
Russian-speaking child born out-of-wedlock is eligible to receive an
Israeli immigration visa if the birth was registered before the child
turned 3. Otherwise a DNA test to prove Jewish parentage is necessary.
A
Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the decision to require DNA
testing for Russian Jews is based on the recommendations of Nativ, an
educational program under the auspices of the Prime Minister’s Office to
help Jews from the FSU immigrate to Israel.
The
issue cuts to the heart of Israel’s Law of Return, which allows anybody
with a Jewish parent, grandparent or spouse to move to Israel and be
eligible for citizenship. Determining who is a Jew — a definition which
has evolved along with the religion’s many streams — has led the
interior Ministry to create a somewhat byzantine system of checks and
rules and has sometimes led applicants, especially converts to Judaism,
to fight for the right to immigrate in Israeli courts.
In
the original report, Maariv revealed that the issue with Birthright
participant Mashah Yakerson lay with the fact that her birth was only
registered when she was 3 years old, therefore casting doubts on her
parentage. But according to Monday’s report, the issue was compounded by
the fact that she was born out-of-wedlock.
Birthright provides free 10-day trips to Israel for young Jewish adults ages 18-26 who have never been to the country in an educational framework.
Dr. Shimon Yakerson said that after appealing
the decision he was told that without a DNA test, his daughter would not
be permitted to participate in the program or to immigrate to Israel.
“This is blatant racism toward Russian Jews,” Shimon Yakerson told Maariv.
Yakerson said that his daughter’s birth was
registered late because he was working at a rabbinical college in the
United States when she was born.
Foreign Ministry officials on Sunday told
Maariv that they were puzzled by the DNA test requirements, because
under the Law of Return, even adopted children of Jews are eligible for
Israeli citizenship.
Yakerson has an older daughter, Dina, who immigrated to Israel under the Law of Return in 1990.
NWN: Isn't this just a bit racist already ?
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