Israel will not ban Americans wishing to immigrate solely because of membership in militant groups, according to the minister of immigrant absorption.
Yair Tsaban, of the Meretz bloc, said the decision whether to allow a potential immigrant to make aliyah will continue “to be examined on an individual case basis.”
“Nothing is automatic. Even under the Law of Return nothing is automatic,” Tsaban told reporters at a briefing about his visit to the United States.
The concern over the immigration policy arose after the Feb. 25 murders of at least 29 Muslim worshipers in Hebron by the militant Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein, a native of Brooklyn.
Goldstein was a member of Kahane Chai, a group that adopted the anti-Arab sentiment of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, who also came from Brooklyn.
The Israeli Cabinet reacted to the murders by approving a measure that bans the militant Kach and Kahane Chai movements, declaring them terrorist organizations.
The American connection to the Hebron shootings caused some to wonder whether the Israeli government would change its traditionally warm attitude toward U.S. immigrants.
And a New York Times article on March 20 reporting an “anti-American mood” in Israel as a result of the Hebron incident heightened the debate.
OLIM WON’T BE REJECTED FOR IDEOLOGY
Tsaban said potential immigrants will be screened according to the requirements of the Law of Return, which bans those acting against the Jewish people, those endangering the security of Israel or the health of the public, and those with a criminal past who might endanger the peace and safety of the public.
An immigrant will not be turned away for reasons that “one has a certain ideology or political aspirations,” he said.
Zahava David, an emissary with the World Zionist Organization in New York who advises Americans who are thinking of moving to Israel, said there has been no change in the information she gives to potential immigrants.
“We haven’t heard that there’s a change in Israeli attitude toward America” that would cause a change in immigration policy, she said.
Tsaban called the reports of anti-American sentiment in Israel untrue.
“I don’t think there is such (an anti-American) development in Israeli public opinion,” he said.
“Any attempt to make any kind of generalization is both stupid and dangerous.”
Tsaban urged American Jews to “do whatever they can” to condemn extremist groups in the United States and Israel.
He added that the Ministry of Education planned to send materials on extremist groups to American Jewish organizations for use in educating Jews about groups that cause “shame to our Jewish people, Jewish heritage and Jewish values.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
