The Laws of Return

There are several explanations for the decision to be so inclusive. One is that as the Nuremberg Laws did not use a halakhic definition in its definition of "Who is a Jew", the Law of Return definition for citizenship eligibility is not halakhic either. Another explanation is the wave of immigration from Poland , following an antisemitic campaign by the government. These immigrants were very assimilated and had many non-Jewish family members.

A second explanation is that in order to increase immigration levels so as to offset the " demographic threat " posed by the growth of the Arab population, the law expanded the base group of those eligible to immigrate to Israel. A third explanation promoted by religious Jews is that the overwhelmingly secular leadership in Israel sought to undermine the influence of religious elements in Israeli politics and society by allowing more secular Jews and their non-Jewish spouses to immigrate.

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The Israeli Rabbinate is a purely Orthodox body that is far more strict in defining 'who is a Jew'. This creates a situation in which thousands of immigrants who are eligible for citizenship under the Law of Return's criteria, are ineligible for Jewish marriage by the Israeli Rabbinate. As of , 2,, Jews have immigrated to Israel since Section 2 b of the Law of Return empowers the Minister of Interior to deny Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return on a number of grounds.

For example, an applicant may be denied citizenship if he or she is considered a threat to the security of the State of Israel e. This provision has been used to exclude applicants a handful of times since Israel's establishment. Notable cases include Robert Soblen , an American Communist who spied for the Soviet Union and fled to Israel in an attempt to escape a life sentence; Meyer Lansky , an American mobster who was initially granted entry to Israel but was expelled two years later; and Victor Vancier , an American Kahanist activist convicted of involvement in a series of bombings.

The granting of citizenship under the Law of Return does not prevent a person being extradited back to another country under an extradition treaty with that other country. The Supreme Court of Israel ruled in that Messianic Judaism constituted another religion , and that people who had become Messianic Jews were not therefore eligible for Aliyah under the law.

2. The Law of Returns

On April 16, , the Supreme Court ruled in a case brought by a number of people with Jewish fathers and grandfathers whose applications for citizenship had been rejected on the grounds that they were Messianic Jews. The argument was made by the applicants that they had never been Jews according to halakha, and were not therefore excluded by the conversion clause. They also immigrate as a non-Jewish relative of a Jew and not as a Jew.

This argument was upheld in the ruling, [19] [20] and the government agreed to reprocess their applications. Despite this, Messianic Jews are considered to be eligible for the law if they can claim Jewish ancestry having a Jewish father or grandfather. Critics claim that the Law of Return runs counter to the claims of a democratic state. Palestinians and advocates for Palestinian refugee rights criticize the Law of Return, which they compare with the Palestinian claim to a Palestinian right of return.

A report by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia ESCWA slammed the Law of Return, "conferring on Jews worldwide the right to enter Israel and obtain Israeli citizenship regardless of their countries of origin and whether or not they can show links to Israel-Palestine, while withholding any comparable right from Palestinians, including those with documented ancestral homes in the country," as a policy of "demographic engineering" meant to uphold Israel's status as "the Jewish state ".

The report was later withdrawn following controversy. This couple was the first same-sex, different religion married couple to request joint Aliyah Status, although opposite sex married couples of different religions receive joint Aliyah as a matter of course. The Jewish man quickly received citizenship but the decision of citizenship for his husband was delayed by the Ministry of the Interior despite the clause in the law saying the spouse of the Jewish returnee must also be granted citizenship.

In , Interior Minister Gidon Sa'ar officially decided that, according to the Law of Return, Jews in same-sex relationships married abroad wishing to immigrate to Israel can do so - even if their partners are not Jewish - and both they and their partners will receive Israeli citizenship. Supporters of the law say that it is very similar to those in many European states, which also employ an ethnic component. Among Israeli Jews, continued Jewish immigration enjoys strong support. Support for the law among Israeli Arabs is much less.

According to a poll overseen by Haifa University sociologist Sammy Smooha among Jews and Arabs conducted in only In September , the discovery of a violent Israeli Neo-Nazi cell Patrol 35 in Petah Tikva , made up of teenage immigrants from the former Soviet Union , led to renewed calls amongst politicians to amend the Law of Return. Amongst those who are in favor of retaining the Law, controversy exists over its wording. The Law's definition of a "Jew" and "Jewish people" are subject to debate. Israeli and Diaspora Jews differ with each other as groups and among themselves as to what this definition should be for the purposes of the Law of Return.

Additionally, there is a lively debate over the meaning of the terms "Jewish State" and "State of the Jews". It is not only the Knesset, however, which has been repeatedly obliged to directly or indirectly address these issues. Over the years, many of Israel's interior ministers have examined the issue of the Law of Return and wavered as to how to apply it.

The judiciary has also been called upon to express an opinion on matters relating to the Law. This burning and recurrent question in the country's political dialogue not only reveals but also exacerbates differences of opinion between Israelis. A greater or smaller quantity would frustrate the aim sought. He who has more coloring matter must leave the surplus unused.

He who has a smaller quantity can dye only a part of the piece. The diminishing return results in this instance in the complete uselessness of the additional quantity which must not even be employed because it would thwart the design.

In other instances a certain minimum is required for the production of the minimum effect. Between this minimum effect and the optimal effect there is a margin in which increased doses result either in a proportional increase in effect or in a more than proportional increase in effect.

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In order to make a machine turn, a certain minimum of lubricant is needed. Whether an increase of lubricant above this minimum increases the machine's performance in proportion to the increase in the amount applied, or to a greater extent, can only be ascertained by technological experience. The law of returns does not answer the following questions: All this must be discerned by experience. But the law of returns itself, i. The Malthusian law of population and the concepts of absolute overpopulation and under-population and optimum population derived from it are the application of the law of returns to a special problem.

They deal with changes in the supply of human labor, other factors being equal. Because people, for political considerations, wanted to reject the Malthusiam law, they fought with passion but with faulty arguments against the law of returns--which, incidentally, they knew only as the law of diminishing returns of the use of capital and labor on land.

Today we no longer need to pay any attention to these idle remonstrances. The law of returns is not limited to the use of complementary factors of production on land. The endeavors to refute or to demonstrate its validity by historical and experimental investigations of agricultural production are as needless as they are [ p.

He who wants to reject the law would have to explain why people are ready to pay prices for land. If the law were not valid, a farmer would never consider expanding the size of his farm. He would be in a position to multiply indefinitely the return of any piece of soil by multiplying his input of capital and labor. In stagnant economies, where techniques of production have not changed for long periods, this effect is clearly seen.

In progressive economies, on the other hand, technical advances have succeeded in more than offsetting this factor and in raising the standard of living in spite of rising populations. We welcome suggested improvements to any of our articles. You can make it easier for us to review and, hopefully, publish your contribution by keeping a few points in mind.

Your contribution may be further edited by our staff, and its publication is subject to our final approval. Unfortunately, our editorial approach may not be able to accommodate all contributions. Our editors will review what you've submitted, and if it meets our criteria, we'll add it to the article.

Please note that our editors may make some formatting changes or correct spelling or grammatical errors, and may also contact you if any clarifications are needed. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Learn More in these related Britannica articles: Although wages are held down, profits do not rise proportionately, because tenant farmers outbid each other for superior land. As land prices were increasing, Malthus concluded, the chief beneficiaries of economic progress were the landowners. In the diagram, if feet of gold wire are indicated….

Population , in human biology, the whole number of inhabitants occupying an area such as a country or the world and continually being modified by increases births and immigrations and losses deaths and emigrations.