Israel Protests Canadian Practice Regarding Refugee Status for Emigres

The Israeli Foreign Ministry has protested Canada’s practice of granting refugee status to new immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union on the grounds of discrimination.

Both the ministry and the Jewish Agency said the practice damages Israel’s international reputation.

Canada’s ambassador to Israel, Norman Spector, was this week summoned to the office of the Foreign Ministry’s acting director-general, Eitan Ben-Tsur, who “expressed Israel’s annoyance and regret” over the matter, according to a Foreign Ministry spokesman.

Concern in Israel surfaced after the daily newspaper Ha’aretz published an article reporting that in the past few years, 150 Israeli citizens who were new immigrants from the former Soviet Union were granted the status of refugees in Canada.

Several thousand additional requests for such status are reported to be pending.

The claims apparently are being made on the grounds that Israel discriminates against the non-Jewish spouses of the Jewish immigrants.

Ben-Tsur told Spector that Israeli law calls for equality for all its citizens regardless of race, religion or sex. He also said the new immigrants from the former Soviet Union are granted generous benefits, regardless of their religion.

Spector pledged to look into the matter and report back to the Foreign Ministry, though at the same time he made a point of defending Canada’s refugee policy.

Yehiel Leket, acting chairman of the Jewish Agency, said he was shocked by the scope of the problem. He said that in April he visited Canada, where officials assured him that the number of Israelis being granted refugee status was small.

This week he wrote to Canadian Jewish leaders, appealing to them to use their influence with the government to prevent the practice.