New
Interior Minister: Bring only Jews to Israel
Nurit Felter
Published: 07.17.07
Yedioth Internet
Newly elected
minister Meir Sheetrit slams Israeli policy of bringing great
numbers of 'quasi-Jews' to country, wants to introduce new criteria
that will allow only 'bona-fide Jews' to make aliyah
Nurit Felter
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3426237,00.html
"It's time to bring only Jews to Israel," newly elected Interior
Minister Meir Sheetrit said Friday in an interview with Yedioth
Ahronoth, and called for a new discussion on the Law of Return. "If
we don't discuss these issues now, within a few years Israel will no
longer be the State of the Jews."
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Sheetrit said he was shocked to discover statistics about the
number of non-Jews living in the country.
"Seventy percent of emigrants from the Former Soviet Union are
not Jewish, the Falash Mura continue to pour in from Ethiopia,
Jewish organizations roam the world and bring here quasi-Jews from
all sorts of tribes, thousands of illegal residents from the
Palestinian Authority live and work here uninterrupted, and
thousands Africans infiltrate to Israel, when only a minority are
Darfur refugees," he stated.
Sheetrit, who took up the position last week, said it was time
for Israel to decide who it wants to see living here. "We retuned to
our homeland after 2,000 years in exile in order to build a Jewish,
Zionist state here, not a Foreign Legionaries country. Entrance to
the country should not be automatic." His main concern, he stated,
was that Israel might lose it Jewish majority due to reckless
immigration policies.
According to Sheetrit, Israel should institutionalize a mechanism
that would examine candidates for aliyah and make sure they are
Jewish, and also that they have a clean record.
How would you decide who should
be allowed in and who shouldn't?
"The way I see it, it is our duty to accept every Jew who wants
to and is capable of coming here, on the condition that he feels he
shares our destiny and wants his children to live here.
Additionally, other criteria must be set, for instance 'criminality
tests.' I don't want any criminal being imported here."
Sheetrit stated he was considering introducing citizenship tests
in Israel, as well as obligating new immigrants to swear allegiance
to the state. However, he added that he opposed using financial
criteria, because "the Jewish and Zionist element is till the most
important one."