Widows and widowers of the children and grandchildren of Jews are eligible to obtain Israeli citizenship and immigrate to the country under the Law of Return, the High Court of Justice ruled Sunday.
The ruling has practical implications for only a few dozen people a year. It means that men and women who married someone who was not Jewish but was eligible for citizenship under the Law of Return will retain their own eligibility for citizenship, even though their spouse has died.
The ruling was welcomed by the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), the legal arm of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, for allowing families to be reunited in Israel. It was denounced by Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked and others as undermining the Law of Return and the Jewish foundations of the state.
The ruling is particularly relevant for men and women whose children have already moved to Israel but who have in recent years been blocked by the Interior Ministry from entering after their spouses passed away, IRAC attorney Nicole Maor said.
The Law of Return grants a Jew, the child of a Jew and the grandchild of a Jew the right to Israeli citizenship, along with their spouses.
The law also allows the spouse of a Jew to obtain citizenship even if their spouse died. However, the clause in the law permitting this situation does not explicitly state that the spouses of the children and grandchildren of Jews who died can also get citizenship under the Law of Return.
Until 2016, the Interior Ministry allowed widows and widowers of the children and grandchildren of Jews to obtain citizenship. But it changed its policy and began blocking citizenship requests by such people.
The IRAC then began receiving requests for assistance from people in this category, including those who had children in Israel, Maor said.
In one case, a man in Ukraine who was the son of a Jew was married to a non-Jew and had four children, she said. Three of the four children immigrated to Israel, served in the army and made their lives in Israel. The father and mother were planning to make aliyah when the father died.
The mother subsequently went ahead with her aliyah request to be reunited with her children in Israel but was blocked by the Interior Ministry.
The High Court’s ruling on Sunday means she will now be allowed to gain citizenship and immigrate to Israel.
Despite the criticism voiced against the decision, the High Court’s ruling actually strengthens the Law of Return since it will “strengthen the connection of the third generation and their desire to make aliyah, in the knowledge that their parents will be able to join them if they so wish,” Maor said.
IRAC executive director Anat Hoffman applauded what she said was a “far-reaching ruling that is life-changing for Israeli families who have waited, sometimes for years, to be reunited with their loved ones... Finally, these individuals, who are connected with the Jewish people, can make their home with their families in the Jewish state.”
The ruling was strongly criticized by right-wing politicians, including Shaked.
“The High Court has again positioned itself today as the ultimate legislature and eroded the Law of Return, the ‘most important law among Israeli laws’ (in the words of Justice Mintz who wrote the minority opinion),” she wrote.
The Selection Committee for Judges would soon appoint four new High Court justices, Shaked said, “and I promise that the minority opinion of Judge Mintz will be placed in front of the eyes of the committee when searching for suitable candidates.”
Israel was now “a state of all its non-Jews,” Likud MK Shlomo Karhi said, adding: “The High Court is eroding the foundations of the Jewish state and through ‘purposive interpretation’ distorts the law so that it will serve the wishes of its progressive judges. If we do not put an end to this, the High Court will put an end to the Jewish state.”