On Wed, 1 Aug 2001, Nathan Newman wrote:
> In one sense, Israel has one of the most immigration policies on
> earth. Anyone willing to be converted by an orthodox rabbit can
> immigrate there, including your Palestinian friends.
You're typing a bit fast there, Nathan, but I have no intention of splitting hares...
What you suggest however is a sad fantasy. Any Arab -- in Israel, in the West Bank, or in New York -- who attempted to convert to Judaism to qualify as a Israeli Jew under the Law of Return would be met with derision -- and possibly jailed in two of those three places, because there, to begin the process of conversion, one needs the approval of both the local police and the secret police! Everyone in Israel and the West Bank must be registered by religion AND nationality, so (as one R. Levi wrote in *Ha'aretz* 910219) "in practice, conversion is limited to Europeans because an Arab always remains an Arab when it comes to the entry for nationality, even if he has converted to Judaism." (There is, significantly, no "Israeli" nationality: one is "Jewish," "Arab," Druze," etc.)
> In that sense, Israel is not an ethnic state -- since it does not
> require blood ties -- but an ideological state in that you must pledge
> allegiance to a certain set of religious beliefs in order to immigrate
> there.
What the Law of Return has been held by Israeli courts to require is blood ties ("nationality," if you prefer) -- with rare exceptions for non-Jews who have been converted as you suggest by an Orthodox rabbi. But I stress the rarity. By far the majority of Israeli Jews are not religious, so most of those who have become citizens under the Law of Return did not "pledge allegiance to a certain set of of religious beliefs." But they did have the right parent(s). --CGE