Knesset Votes To End Passport On Arrival Policy For New Immigrants

Starting from July 10, a new law will require immigrants obtaining Israeli citizenship through the Law of Return to demonstrate that their primary residence is in Israel before receiving their passports. This ends the previous practice of granting passports upon arrival.

After an extended filibuster by opposition parties, the Knesset passed this law, which overturns a previous agreement made between the government and the Yisrael Beytenu party in 2017. Under the previous agreement, new citizens who claimed Jewish heritage were immediately eligible for passports.

The change, sponsored by the Interior Ministry, will reinstate a one-year residency requirement to establish Israel as the center of life for new citizens. Temporary travel documents will be provided to new arrivals until they fulfill this requirement.

This law comes in response to a significant influx of immigrants from Russia and Ukraine following Russia’s invasion of its western neighbor in February 2022.

MK Yosef Taieb, of the Shas party, proposed an earlier version of this law. The proposal aimed to eliminate the Law of Return’s “grandchild clause,” which grants Israeli citizenship to individuals with at least one Jewish grandparent who are not actively practicing another religion. Taieb’s efforts reflect the ongoing political dispute between Shas and Yisrael Beytenu, which opposes religious restrictions on public life and government support for the chareidi community.

Religious parties, including United Torah Judaism, Shas, Otzma Yehudit, Noam, and Religious Zionism, argue that the grandchild clause undermines the “Jewish character” of the state, as many of the immigrants under this clause are not recognized as Jewish according to traditional interpretations of Jewish law. This change primarily affects potential immigrants from the former Soviet Union, where ethnicity follows a patrilineal descent, contrary to halacha, which considers Jewishness inherited matrilineally.

The Interior Ministry cites the need to prevent abuse of the system, where individuals acquire Israeli citizenship for the sake of obtaining a more advantageous passport without genuinely settling in the country, as the reason for implementing this policy change.

{Matzav.com Israel}