Do Gays and Israel Have a Right to Exist?

Benjamin Netanyahu is opposing the signing of  the treaty with Iran that my President agreed to, he insisting that Iran’s leaders declare Israel’s right to exist. Does he want this declaration in writing? If so, this document will have done more for the existence of Israel then YHWH, because for God, this was always in doubt. On numerous occasions God threatens to take the Promised Land away from the Jews – whoever they are – His so called “Chosen People”. Cryus, the Persian (Iranian) King of Kings is titled “Messiah” by the Jews because the returned the Jews to Judea, and allowed them to build a temple.

This morning I discovered my kindred, Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, took the name Elisheba Rachel, when she converted to Judaism. For sixteen years I have owned a little basket in the shape of an apple where inside I have a Semitic girl holding a lamb. Rachel means “ewe”. There is a little piece of paper with the name Elisabeth on it, which means “the oath of God”. Elisabeth took the oath of the Nazarite and born John the Baptist. This girl represented my child. I was convinced I would die childless, then, in 2000 my sixteen year old daughter came into my life. Three years ago her Tea Party lover convinced her I was a parasite, and he bid her to hate me.

Elisheba Rosemond Rachel was a propoenent of Gay Marriage. She was a tireless in her war on AIDS. She is a Gay Icon. Elisheba is a convert to Judaism. she dies a Jew. She tried to denounce her American Citizenship. She was born in London. She offered herself as a hostage. She would be livid if she was alive and would have spoken up about the Indiana Religious Right Law that was promoted by Rabbi Gettinger who is overly concerned with mixed marriages in Indiana, for starts. In Israel, Jewish women marrying Muslims is a national crisis, as is the growing populations of Arab citizens that may surpass the population of Jews.

For the reason my late rosy kindred was at the crux of all these concerns that existed when Jesus was born, I am compelled to divulge the core of my novel, being, Jesus married Mary Magdalene because she was a Moabite and a descendant of Ruth, as was Jesus.  When Elisheba converted, she quoted Ruth at the ceremony.  In 1990 I saw a Rabbi about converting.

Thanks to the Torah, we know Gays are real. Indeed, they may be more ‘People of the Book’ then some Jews, especially those who subscribe to being given a seal of authenticity by the foes of Judaism, and now, declared political adversaries.  On these issues, Elisheba Rosemond may be more of a astute Rabbi then the members of JACCI.

Sometimes, one has to let go a hardy laugh!

Jon Presco

Copyright 2014

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/184130#.VSQBlptTE5s

“I’m one of those people who think you can be close to God anywhere, not just in a place designed for worship …”[9]:176 At the conversion ceremony, with her parents present as witnesses and in full support of her decision, Taylor repeated the words of Ruth:

… for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people and thy God my God.[9]:176

Ms. Taylor apparently tried to renounce in Paris at one point, unsuccessfully when married to Richard Burton around the time she won the Oscar for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.

There were various newspaper reports published in the 1960s about how she first attempted to renounce (unsuccessfully) and then later successfully renounced while married to Richard Burton.

Elizabeth Taylor reportedly reacquired her U.S. citizenship later in 1977 when then married to John Warner who served six terms in the U.S. Senate and was the Secretary of Navy and now practices law.

President Barack Obama is rejecting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for Iran to recognize the state of Israel as part of a final nuclear deal.

“The notion that we would condition Iran not getting nuclear weapons in a verifiable deal on Iran recognizing Israel is really akin to saying that we won’t sign a deal unless the nature of the Iranian regime completely transforms. And that is, I think, a fundamental misjudgment,” Obama said in an interview with NPR on Monday.

On Friday, Netanyahu, a vocal critic of the Iranian nuclear talks, said that a nuclear deal with Iran must include “unambiguous Iranian recognition of Israel’s right to exist.” The Obama administration announced that the U.S., Iran and other world powers had reached a preliminary ‘framework’ agreement on Thursday.

Elizabeth Taylor (apparently she hated Liz), was a woman of depth on-screen and off. Here is her early and brilliant speech in favour of gay marriage at the 2000 GLAAD awards in California, with thanks to Rex Wockner for reminding us of this vision. Taylor fought for equality long before it was sexy, and we’ll remember her long after we finally achieve it.

“All of my life I’ve spent a lot of time with gay men — Montgomery Clift, Jimmy Dean, Rock Hudson — who are my colleagues, coworkers, confidantes, my closest friends, but I never thought of who they slept with! They were just the people I loved. I could never understand why they couldn’t be afforded the same rights and protections as all of the rest of us. There is no gay agenda, it’s a human agenda.

“All of us should be treated the same, and GLAAD knows that. Why shouldn’t gay people be allowed to marry? Those against gay marriages say marriage should only be between a man and a woman. God, I, of all people know that [the remainder of the sentence was inaudible due to an audience outburst]. I feel that any home where there is love constitutes a family and all families should have the same legal rights, including the right to marry and have or adopt children!

“Why shouldn’t gay people be able to live as open and freely as everybody else? What it comes down to, ultimately, is love. How can anything bad come out of love? The bad stuff comes out of mistrust, misunderstanding and, God knows, from hate and from ignorance … the bad things never came out of loving acts, loving gestures or loving relationships. That’s why I’m here tonight — to celebrate you and your families. And to tell you to hang in there and to say, once and for all of us, long live love.” Continue reading →

“Rabbi Yisrael Gettinger, of Congregation B’nai Torah in Indianapolis, said his Orthodox Jewish tradition is equally clear that homosexual activity is, biblically speaking, “outlawed.”

“One cannot be more certain of something being inappropriate if it’s called an abomination in the Bible,” Gettinger said. “Those are not my words. Those are the Bible’s words. Those are God’s words.”

In the last year such issues predictably included voting against school vouchers and the defunding of Planned Parenthood and for the passage of something called the Child Nutrition Act.  In the meantime it studiously avoided addressing what are objectively demonstrable threats to the future of Indianapolis Jews, such as the epidemic of intermarriage that is rapidly thinning Jewish ranks and the profound lack of a basic Jewish education that afflicts so many, leading to community apathy and assimilation. 

http://forward.com/articles/186590/israel-jewish-marriage-law-relaxes-orthodox-grip-a/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-miscegenation_laws

Nationalist public figure Baruch Marzel also spoke at the protest against the wedding, a marriage Moral’s father refused to attend because of his opposition to his daughter’s disengagement from the Jewish people.

“Two months ago we sent thousands of soldiers to prevent the danger of Hamas in the south. But the danger assimilation poses to the Jewish nation is a danger a thousand times worse,” said Marzel.

Marzel called on Jews in Israel to wake up before “what happens abroad, where every second Jew assimilates, arrives in Israel,” in a reference to the remarkably high assimilation rates in America and Europe.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/barack-obama-rejects-benjamin-netanyahus-call-for-iran-to-recognize-israel-116710.html#ixzz3WdPWyFZj

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_policy_of_Nazi_Germany

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht

The 1935 Nuremberg Laws stripped German Jews of their citizenship and forbade Jews to marry non-Jewish Germans.

The result of these laws was the exclusion of Jews from German social and political life.^[13] Many sought asylum abroad; hundreds of thousands emigrated, but as Chaim Weizmann wrote in 1936, “The world seemed to be divided into two parts—those places where the Jews could not live and those where they could not enter.”^[14] The international Évian Conference, on 6 July 1938, addressed the issue of Jewish and Gypsy immigration to other countries. By the time the conference was held, more than 250,000 Jews had fled Germany and Austria, which had been annexed by Germany in March 1938; more than 300,000 German and Austrian Jews were still seeking refuge and asylum from oppression. As the number of Jews and Gypsies wanting to leave increased, the restrictions against them grew, with many countries tightening their rules for admission. By 1938, Germany “had entered a new radical phase in anti-Semitic activity.”^[15] Some historians believe that the Nazi government had been contemplating a planned outbreak of violence against the Jews and were waiting for an appropriate provocation; there is evidence of this planning dating to 1937.^[16] In a 1997 interview, the German historian Hans Mommsen claimed that a major motive for the pogrom was the desire of the Gauleiters of the NSDAP to seize Jewish property and businesses.^[17] Mommsen was quoted as saying:

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Think-Again-Is-Israel-dividing-American-Jewry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_citizens_of_Israel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijJipyk1ZFw

Jewish causes[edit]

In 1959, at age 27, after nine months of study, Taylor converted from Christian Science to Judaism,[78] taking the Hebrew name Elisheba Rachel. She stated that her conversion was something she had long considered and was not related to her marriages. After Mike Todd‘s death, Taylor said that she “felt a desperate need for a formalized religion”, and explained that neither Roman Catholicism nor Christian Science were able to address many of the “questions she had about life and death”.[9]:175

http://www.immigrationvisaattorneyblog.com/2011/03/elizabeth-taylor-a-lesson-in-t.html

The specific facts surrounding the citizenship of Elizabeth Taylor may  never become public knowledge.  She was not born in the U.S. and hence did not receive U.S. citizenship via the 14th

According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, the Arab population in 2013 was estimated at 1,658,000, representing 20.7% of the country’s population.[2] The majority of these identify themselves as Arab or Palestinian by nationality and Israeli by citizenship.[5][6][7] Many have family ties to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as to Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. Negev Bedouins and Druze tend to identify more as Israelis than other Arab citizens of Israel.[8][9][10][11]

Most of the Arabs living in East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed, were offered Israeli citizenship, but most have refused, not wanting to recognize Israel’s claim to sovereignty. They became permanent residents instead.[12] They have the right to apply for citizenship, are entitled to municipal services, and have municipal voting rights.[13]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_citizens_of_Israel

Israel allows its citizens to hold dual (or multiple) citizenship.

A dual national is considered an Israeli citizen for all purposes, and is entitled to enter Israel without a visa, stay in Israel according to his own desire, engage in any profession and work with any employer according to Israeli law. An exception is that under an additional law added to the Basic Law: the Knesset (Article 16A) according to which Knesset members cannot pledge allegiance unless their foreign citizenship has been revoked, if possible, under the laws of that country.

A dual national is not considered a foreign citizen under Israeli Security Service Law and is subject to a mandatory military service according to that law; is considered a citizen regarding the criminal liability of Israeli civilians according to the Israeli Penal Law (and accordingly is not entitled to consular access by a representative of the other country); and is considered a citizen according to the Israeli laws of personal status, such as the authority jurisdiction of the rabbinical courts in the matters of marriage and divorce, according to the Israeli Rabbinical courts jurisdictions law.^[11]

A dual national with citizenship of another country that does not allow multiple citizenship may experience problems with the other country of citizenship if Israeli citizenship is not renounced. Japanese nationality law, for example, generally requires anyone with dual Israeli-Japanese citizenship to declare, to the Japanese Ministry of Justice, before turning 22 years old, whether to keep Israeli or Japanese citizenship. A failed renunciation of the Israeli citizenship of a dual Israeli-Japanese national will require that person to then renounce his or her Japanese citizenship.

The original name for the people we now call Jews was Hebrews. The word “Hebrew” (in Hebrew, “Ivri”) is first used in the Torah to describe Abraham (Gen. 14:13). The word is apparently derived from the name Eber, one of Abraham’s ancestors. Another tradition teaches that the word comes from the word “eyver,” which means “the other side,” referring to the fact that Abraham came from the other side of the Euphrates, or referring to the fact Abraham was separated from the other nations morally and spiritually.

Another name used for the people is Children of Israel or Israelites, which refers to the fact that the people are descendants of Jacob, who was also called Israel.

The word “Jew” (in Hebrew, “Yehudi”) is derived from the name Judah, which was the name of one of Jacob’s twelve sons. Judah was the ancestor of one of the tribes of Israel, which was named after him. Likewise, the word Judaism literally means “Judah-ism,” that is, the religion of the Yehudim. Other sources, however, say that the word “Yehudim” means “People of G-d,” because the first three letters of “Yehudah” are the same as the first three letters of G-d’s four-letter name.

Originally, the term Yehudi referred specifically to members of the tribe of Judah, as distinguished from the other tribes of Israel. However, after the death of King Solomon, the nation of Israel was split into two kingdoms: the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel (I Kings 12; II Chronicles 10). After that time, the word Yehudi could properly be used to describe anyone from the kingdom of Judah, which included the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi, as well as scattered settlements from other tribes. The most obvious biblical example of this usage is in Esther 2:5, where Mordecai is referred to as both a Yehudi and a member of the tribe of Benjamin.

In the 6th century B.C.E., the kingdom of Israel was conquered by Assyria and the ten tribes were exiled from the land (II Kings 17), leaving only the tribes in the kingdom of Judah remaining to carry on Abraham’s heritage. These people of the kingdom of Judah were generally known to themselves and to other nations as Yehudim (Jews), and that name continues to be used today.

In common speech, the word “Jew” is used to refer to all of the physical and spiritual descendants of Jacob/Israel, as well as to the patriarchs Abraham and Isaac and their wives, and the word “Judaism” is used to refer to their beliefs. Technically, this usage is inaccurate, just as it is technically inaccurate to use the word “Indian” to refer to the original inhabitants of the Americas. However, this technically inaccurate usage is common both within the Jewish community and outside of it, and is therefore used throughout this site.

Who is a Jew?

A Jew is any person whose mother was a Jew or any person who has gone through the formal process of conversion to Judaism.

It is important to note that being a Jew has nothing to do with what you believe or what you do. A person born to non-Jewish parents who has not undergone the formal process of conversion but who believes everything that Orthodox Jews believe and observes every law and custom of Judaism is still a non-Jew, even in the eyes of the most liberal movements of Judaism, and a person born to a Jewish mother who is an atheist and never practices the Jewish religion is still a Jew, even in the eyes of the ultra-Orthodox. In this sense, Judaism is more like a nationality than like other religions, and being Jewish is like a citizenship. See What Is Judaism?

This has been established since the earliest days of Judaism. In the Torah, you will see many references to “the strangers who dwell among you” or “righteous proselytes” or “righteous strangers.” These are various classifications of non-Jews who lived among Jews, adopting some or all of the beliefs and practices of Judaism without going through the formal process of conversion and becoming Jews. Once a person has converted to Judaism, he is not referred to by any special term; he is as much a Jew as anyone born Jewish.

Although all Jewish movements agree on these general principles, there are occasional disputes as to whether a particular individual is a Jew. Most of these disputes fall into one of two categories.

First, traditional Judaism maintains that a person is a Jew if his mother is a Jew, regardless of who his father is. The liberal movements, on the other hand, allow Jewish status to pass through the mother or the father if the child identifies as Jewish. For example, according to the Reform movement, former Phillies catcher Mike Lieberthal, who had a Jewish father but chooses not to be identified as Jewish, would not be Jewish according to the Reform movement, but former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who had a Jewish father and adopted a Jewish identity as an adult, would be considered Jewish. See their position here). On the other hand, the child of a a Christian father and a Jewish mother who does not publicly identify himself as Jewish would be considered Jewish according to the Orthodox movement, but not according to the Reform movement. The matter becomes even more complicated, because the status of that interfaith child’s children also comes into question.

Second, the more traditional movements do not always acknowledge the validity of conversions by the more liberal movements. A more liberal movement might not follow the procedures required by the more traditional movement, thereby invalidating the conversion. For example, Orthodoxy requires acceptance of the yoke of Torah (observance of Jewish law as Orthodoxy understands it), while other movements would not teach the same laws that Orthodoxy does and might not require observance. The Conservative movement requires circumcision and immersion in a mikvah, which is not always required in Reform conversions.

About Matrilineal Descent

Many people have asked me why traditional Judaism uses matrilineal descent to determine Jewish status, when in all other things (tribal affiliation, priestly status, royalty, etc.) we use patrilineal descent.

The Torah does not specifically state anywhere that matrilineal descent should be used; however, there are several passages in the Torah where it is understood that the child of a Jewish woman and a non-Jewish man is a Jew, and several other passages where it is understood that the child of a non-Jewish woman and a Jewish man is not a Jew.

In Deuteronomy 7:1-5, in expressing the prohibition against intermarriage, G-d says “he [i.e., the non-Jewish male spouse] will cause your child to turn away from Me and they will worship the gods of others.” No such concern is expressed about the child of a non-Jewish female spouse. From this, we infer that the child of a non-Jewish male spouse is Jewish (and can therefore be turned away from Judaism), but the child of a non-Jewish female spouse is not Jewish (and therefore turning away is not an issue).

Leviticus 24:10 speaks of the son of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian man as being “among the community of Israel” (i.e., a Jew).

On the other hand, in Ezra 10:2-3, the Jews returning to Israel vowed to put aside their non-Jewish wives and the children born to those wives. They could not have put aside those children if those children were Jews.

Several people have written to me asking about King David: was he a Jew, given that one of his female ancestors, Ruth, was not a Jew? This conclusion is based on two faulty premises: first of all, Ruth was a Jew, and even if she wasn’t, that would not affect David’s status as a Jew. Ruth converted to Judaism before marrying Boaz and bearing Obed. See Ruth 1:16, where Ruth states her intention to convert. After Ruth converted, she was a Jew, and all of her children born after the conversion were Jewish as well. But even if Ruth were not Jewish at the time Obed was born, that would not affect King David’s status as a Jew, because Ruth is an ancestor of David’s father, not of David’s mother, and David’s Jewish status is determined by his mother.

About the Agudath Ha-Rabonim Statement

In March, 1997, the Agudath Ha-Rabonim issued a statement declaring that the Conservative and Reform movements are “outside of Torah and outside of Judaism.” This statement was widely publicized and widely misunderstood, and requires some response. Three points are particularly worth discussing: 1) the statement does not challenge the Jewish status of Reform and Conservative Jews; 2) the statement is not an official statement of a unified Orthodox opinion; 3) the statement was made with the intent of bringing people into Jewish belief, not with the intention of excluding them from it.

First of all, the Agudath Ha-Rabonim statement does not say that Reform and Conservative Jews are not Jews. Their statement does not say anything about Jewish status. As the discussion above explains, status as a Jew has nothing to do with what you believe; it is simply a matter of who your parents are. Reform and Conservative Jews are Jews, as they have always been, and even the Agudath Ha-Rabonim would agree on that point. The debate over who is a Jew is the same as it has always been, the same as was discussed above: the Reform recognition of patrilineal decent, and the validity of conversions performed by non-Orthodox rabbis.

Second, the Agudath Ha-Rabonim is not the official voice of mainstream Orthodoxy. Their statement does not represent the unified position of Orthodox Judaism in America. In fact, the Rabbinical Council of America (the rabbinic arm of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America) immediately issued a strong statement disassociating themselves from this “hurtful public pronouncement [which] flies in the face of Jewish peoplehood.”

Finally, before one can denounce a statement like this, one should make an attempt to understand the position of those making the statement. According to Orthodoxy, the Torah is the heart of Judaism. All of what our people are revolves around the unchanging, eternal, mutually binding covenant between G-d and our people. That is the definition of Jewish belief, according to Orthodoxy, and all Jewish belief is measured against that yardstick. You may dispute the validity of the yardstick, but you can’t deny that Conservative and Reform Judaism don’t measure up on that yardstick. Reform Judaism does not believe in the binding nature of Torah, and Conservative Judaism believes that the law can change.

The Agudath Ha-Rabonim did not intend to cut Reform and Conservative Jews off from their heritage. On the contrary, their intention was to bring Reform and Conservative Jews back to what they consider to be the only true Judaism. The statement encouraged Reform and Conservative Jews to leave their synagogues and “join an Orthodox synagogue, where they will be warmly welcomed.” I believe the Agudath Ha-Rabonim were sincere, albeit misguided, in this intention. I have known several Orthodox and Chasidic Jews who believed that if there were no Reform or Conservative synagogues, everyone would be Orthodox. However, my own personal experience with Reform and Conservative Jews indicates that if there were no such movements, most of these people would be lost to Judaism entirely, and that would be a great tragedy.

The opinion of mainstream Orthodoxy seems to be that it is better for a Jew to be Reform or Conservative than not to be Jewish at all. While we would certainly prefer that all of our people acknowledged the obligation to observe the unchanging law (just as Conservative Jews would prefer that all of our people acknowledged the right to change the law, and Reform Jews would prefer that all of our people acknowledged the right to pick and choose what to observe), we recognize that, as Rabbi Kook said, “That which unites us is far greater than that which divides us.”

Famous Jews

There once was a site called Jewhoo, that had an extensive list of Jewish actors, athletes, and other celebrities. The site disappeared in 2005. I gather that the site owners got tired of doing a lot of work researching the Jewish background of celebrities only to find their efforts copied all over the Internet without even the slightest acknowledgement. The site exists no more, and the information is lost. Think about that the next time you copy someone else’s work and insist that you’re doing no harm.

In the absence of Jewhoo…

JINFO has an outstanding collection of Jews who have won the nobel prize in various areas or have excelled in various academic fields.

Rights of citizens[edit]

• Israeli citizens have the right to fully participate in the political system of Israel.
• Israeli citizens have the right to obtain an Israeli passport.
• Israeli citizens have the right to travel into and out of Israel whenever they wish (Note: this right may be limited at certain times with special warrants)

Other rights are granted equally to citizens and permanent residents of Israel, among them: the right to work within Israel, the right to extenuation of tax payments, the right to a pension when needed from the social security services, and the right to vote within the scope of local ordinances. Residents who are not citizens may, however, lose their status (and thus any rights provided to them in Israel) if they move outside of Israel’s borders (outside of the Green Line including the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem), contrary to the privileges of citizens which enable them to re-settle in Israel at anytime.

Responsibilities of citizens[edit]

Virtually all responsibilities are imposed upon citizens and non-citizen residents of Israel equally.^{[citation needed]}

A responsibility which is imposed on Israeli citizens only is the requirement to be in possession of an Israeli passport at all times when outside of the country. Israeli citizens must thus have acquired a passport before leaving Israel.

Military service is legally mandatory for virtually all Israeli citizens and residents although various exemptions can be granted. Certain ethnic groups, such as Arab Israelis, have received a blanket exemption.

Acquisition of citizenship[edit]

Law of Return[edit]

The Law of Return grants all Jews the right to immigrate to Israel and almost automatic Israeli citizenship upon arrival in Israel. In the 1970s the Law of Return was expanded to grant the same rights to the spouse of a Jew, the children of a Jew and their spouses, and the grandchildren of a Jew and their spouses, provided that the Jew did not practice a religion other than Judaism willingly. In 1999, the Supreme Court of Israel ruled that Jews or the descendants of Jews that actively practice a religion other than Judaism are not entitled to immigrate to Israel as they would no longer be considered Jews under the Law of Return, irrespective of their status under halacha (Jewish religious law). On April 16, 2008, the Supreme Court ruled in a case brought by a number of people with Jewish fathers and grandfathers whose applications for citizenship had been rejected on the grounds that they were Messianic Jews. The argument was made by the applicants that they had never been Jews according to halakha, and were not therefore excluded by the conversion clause. This argument was upheld in the ruling, and the government agreed to reprocess their applications.

Israeli law distinguishes between the Law of Return, which allows for Jews and their descendants to immigrate to Israel, and Israel’s nationality law, which formally grants Israeli citizenship. In other words, the Law of Return does not itself determine Israeli citizenship; it merely allows for Jews and their eligible descendants to permanently live in Israel. Israel does, however, grant citizenship to those who immigrated under the Law of Return if the applicant so desires.

A non-Israeli Jew or an eligible descendant of a non-Israeli Jew needs to request approval to immigrate to Israel, a request which can be denied for a variety of reasons including (but not limited to) possession of a criminal record, currently infected with a contagious disease, or otherwise viewed as a threat to Israeli society. Eligible applicants under the Law of Return have no claim to any of the rights or privileges of an Israeli citizen until they are formally granted Israeli citizenship. This is possible after one year of residency in Israel. New arrivals are issued an Israeli Travel Document during this year, after which they can apply for citizenship.

Citizenship by residence[edit]

Citizenship by residence was intended for non-Jewish denizens of the British Mandate of Palestine (Arabs, Druze, Bedouins, etc.) who were considered to be associated with Palestine during the period immediately prior to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Such denizens who were still within the territorial confines of Israel after the war were granted full Israeli citizenship. In order to determine who was eligible for citizenship under this provision, the state of Israel conducted a population registration in 1952 and again in the 1980s. Those found to meet the requirements obtained Israeli citizenship. For purposes regarding modern Israeli citizenship, this section is usually irrelevant.

Citizenship by descent[edit]

A child of an Israeli citizen (including children born outside of Israel as first generation out of Israel) is considered an Israeli citizen. Persons born outside Israel are Israeli citizens if their father or mother holds Israeli citizenship, acquired either by birth in Israel, according to the Law of Return, by residence, or by naturalization.^[2]

Citizenship by descent, on the principle of jus sanguinis, is limited to only one generation born abroad. Despite this limitation, descendants of an Israeli national born abroad may be eligible to Israeli citizenship through other methods, such as the Law of Return.

Naturalization[edit]

Adults may acquire Israeli citizenship through naturalization. To be eligible for naturalization, a person must have resided in Israel for three years out of the previous five years. In addition, the applicant must have a right to reside in Israel on a permanent basis. All naturalization requests are, however, at the discretion of the Minister of the Interior. The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law of 2003 suspended this practice in the case of citizens of a number of countries, which some have termed “enemy nationals”. In January 2012, the Supreme Court of Israel upheld the validity of the law.^[3]

Citizenship by marriage[edit]

Israel traditionally automatically granted citizenship to spouses of Jewish Israeli citizens by virtue of the Law of Return. However, this practice was suspended in 1999 due to immigration concerns if the Jewish spouse had done Aliyah previous to the marriage or is an Israeli citizen by birth.

Process for Obtaining Citizenship By Descent[edit]

 

 

From inside Israel the Israeli parent(s) must go to the Misrad Hapnim (Ministry of the Interior) with the child and the child’s original birth certificate that lists the Israeli parent(s) as the parents of the child. In addition the Israeli parent(s) need to bring their Teudat Zehut (National ID) or their Israeli Passport and the child’s foreign passport.^[4] If the parents are not married or did not register their marriage with Misrad Hapnim, or Misrad HaChutz (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) both of the parents must be in attendance at Misrad HaPnim.^[5] After all of the information is verified the child will be issued a Mispar Zehut (Identity Number) and an Israeli Passport. If the child is 16 years old he/she will also receive a Teudat Zehut.^[6] It is important to note that in Israel there is no separation of religion and state.^[7] All citizens must register their religion with Misrad Hapnim in the Population Registry. If the mother is not Jewish by Orthodox standards than the child can not be registered as Jewish, nor can the child be married to a Jewish person inside of Israel.^[8]

Perceived demographic threat

In the northern part of Israel the percentage of Jewish population is declining.^[93] The increasing population of Arabs within Israel, and the majority status they hold in two major geographic regions — the Galilee and the Triangle — has become a growing point of open political contention in recent years. Dr. Wahid Abd Al-Magid, the editor of Al-Ahram Weekly‘s “Arab Strategic Report”, predicts that: “The Arabs of 1948 (i.e. Arabs who stayed within the bounds of Israel and accepted citizenship) may become a majority in Israel in 2035, and they will certainly be the majority in 2048.”^[94] Among Arabs, Muslims have the highest birth rate, followed by Druze, and then Christians.^[95] The phrase demographic threat (or demographic bomb) is used within the Israeli political sphere to describe the growth of Israel’s Arab citizenry as constituting a threat to its maintenance of its status as a Jewish state with a Jewish demographic majority.

Israeli historian Benny Morris stated in 2004 that, while he strongly opposes expulsion of Israeli Arabs, in case of an “apocalyptic” scenario where Israel comes under total attack with non-conventional weapons and comes under existential threat, an expulsion might be the only option. He compared the Israeli Arabs to a “time bomb” and “a potential fifth column” in both demographic and security terms and said they are liable to undermine the state in time of war.^[96]

Several politicians^[97][98] have viewed the Arabs in Israel as a security and demographic threat.^{[99][100][101]}

The phrase “demographic bomb” was famously used by Benjamin Netanyahu in 2003^[102] when he noted that, if the percentage of Arab citizens rises above its current level of about 20 percent, Israel will not be able to maintain a Jewish demographic majority. Netanyahu’s comments were criticized as racist by Arab Knesset members and a range of civil rights and human rights organizations, such as the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.^[103] Even earlier allusions to the “demographic threat” can be found in an internal Israeli government document drafted in 1976 known as the Koenig Memorandum, which laid out a plan for reducing the number and influence of Arab citizens of Israel in the Galilee region.

In 2003, the Israeli daily Ma’ariv published an article entitled “Special Report: Polygamy is a Security Threat”, detailing a report put forth by the Director of the Population Administration at the time, Herzl Gedj; the report described polygamy in the Bedouin sector a “security threat” and advocated means of reducing the birth rate in the Arab sector.^[104] The Population Administration is a department of the Demographic Council, whose purpose, according to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, is: “…to increase the Jewish birthrate by encouraging women to have more children using government grants, housing benefits, and other incentives”.^[105] In 2008 the minister of the interior appointed Yaakov Ganot as new head of the Population Administration, which according to Haaretz is “probably the most important appointment an interior minister can make”.^[106]

A study showed that in 2010, Jewish birthrates rose by 31% and 19,000 diaspora Jews immigrated to Israel, while the Arab birthrate fell by 1.7%.^[107]