Under new legislation proposed by Israel’s Interior Ministry this week, new immigrants would receive passports one year after obtaining citizenship, and only if they have actually relocated to Israel.
Currently, Jews immigrating to Israel under the Law of Return are entitled to receive Israeli passports immediately.
The legislation notes that since 2017, the last time the law was amended, there has been a “dramatic” rise in people obtaining Israeli citizenship who don’t settle in Israel. According to the bill, in the period of June 2021-June 2022, 4,094 new immigrants requested Israeli passports within a month after obtaining citizenship, but only 60 of those immigrants currently live in Israel.
Interior Ministry officials believe the other 40% only went through the paperwork of immigrating to get an Israeli passport.
Notes attached to the bill also cited a security official who said the existing law “makes it easier to abuse the Law of Return,” raising potential security threats.
According to Population Registry figures, the percentage of immigrants leaving Israel after a short time first spiked in 2017 and was particularly prevalent among immigrants from Russia and France.
The legislation would also apply to immigrants who have been in Israel for less than a year, and to immigrants who never moved to Israel.
The Law of Return gives any Jew the right to live in Israel and obtain Israeli citizenship. Israel’s governing coalition has sought to tighten the Law of Return to stem the number of non-Jews obtaining automatic citizenship.
The Law of Return currently extends immigration rights to people with one Jewish grandparent. It also offers the same rights to the immigrant’s spouse and children, regardless of whether those individuals are considered Jewish according to religious law.
In January 2019, Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics announced for the first time that non-Jewish immigrants outnumbered Jewish immigrants. Advocates of amending the Law of Return say this pattern has gone on for years.