There has been a marked increase in the number of Israelis seeking citizenship in EU countries since the November elections that brought to power the most right-wing and religious government in all of Israel. State history.
The French Embassy in Israel said applications for French passports rose 13% in November compared to October, it was reported Tuesday. The time of IsraelThe Hebrew site of Times of Israel.
The mission indicated that 1210 files were deposited in October, compared to 1365 files in November. Figures for December are not yet available but this trend should not be reversed.
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In all, applications for French passports increased by about 45% between 2021 and 2022, although this phenomenon was related to the coronavirus pandemic inasmuch as the number of applications decreased at that time. The embassy said that about 60 percent of the Israelis who come for meetings on French citizenship are applying for the first time ever, and that this percentage is the highest recorded so far.
Similar increases have been reported in other EU countries.
said Totti Ashbel, a lawyer who specializes in citizenship applications in Europe The time of Israel There has been a 10% increase in applications for German citizenship since the beginning of November.
Likewise, she noted that there has been a 10% increase in the number of Israeli citizens with Portuguese citizenship who are now applying to extend citizenship for the benefit of their family members.
A nine-branched menorah, or Hanukkah Menorah, on a table at the Main Synagogue in Lisbon, May 5, 2015 (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Dror Hayek, head of a law firm specializing in obtaining Portuguese citizenship, said he had seen a 68% jump in the number of initial applications. By October 2022, the cabinet had received 100 new applications from Israelis seeking Portuguese citizenship, a number that rose to 168 by November.
According to Hayek, “Following the elections, the number of applications increased sixfold. He explained that he received 115 applications in December.
Portugal passed a law in 2013 allowing the naturalization of descendants of Sephardic Jews. This legislation was an attempt to atone for the horrors of the Inquisition, a campaign of religious persecution that took place in the sixteenth century in Spain and Portugal and forced tens of thousands of Jews to emigrate, to hide their Jewish identity or to renounce it. .
However, the country decided to suspend this law in April 2021 due to controversy over the manner in which Russian Jewish oligarch Roman Abramovich managed to obtain citizenship the previous year. The citizenship request drew attention after Abramovich was sanctioned for his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The suspension came into effect on September 1. Since then, he said, requests prior to this date are still being processed time.
“From April to September, there was a mad rush for Portuguese passports – everyone wanted to make sure they had enough time to issue them before the law changed,” Hayek said. “Since September, we have been satisfied with dealing with promoting old files and granting citizenship to spouses and children.”
He pointed out that since Portugal began offering citizenship in 2013, Israeli interest in applying for citizenship has always increased after each ballot, adding that there was no such rise in the past, despite the recent political crisis that was marked by the organization of four elections. within three years. Finally, a fifth return to the polls, on November 1, gave victory to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and his ultra-Orthodox and far-right allies.
For his part, Amichai Zilberberg, a lawyer and notary who specializes in Polish citizenship applications, reported an “tens of percent” increase in the number of citizenship applications since the beginning of November.
The Romanian mission indicated that it did not notice an increase in the number of applications for citizenship, explaining that the numbers remain “high, as always” and that there is “a large number of Israelis of Romanian origin who are entitled to Romanian citizenship”.
Departure hall at Ben Gurion Airport on January 4, 2022. (Arie Leib Abrams/Flash90)
The German Embassy has made it clear that it does not track applications and therefore has no information on any changes in the numbers.
For its part, the US mission refused to comment.
Recommendation of The time of IsraelThe Portuguese and Polish embassies did not respond to a request for comment at the time of writing.
The new government is pushing ahead with a sweeping reform of the judiciary that will allow the Knesset to re-pass legislation that was previously rejected by the Supreme Court. In addition, the coalition plans to ensure majority government representation on the committee responsible for selecting judges, and it intends to weaken anti-discrimination laws that are vital in protecting the rights of minorities and LGBT people.
Critics criticized the proposed reform, saying it would seriously damage the democratic nature of the Jewish state.
