Few topics can provoke as fierce a conflict as the question of Jewish identity. When Israeli politicians propose to ‘clean up’ the Law of Return by excluding the right of Jewish grandchildren to repatriate, it’s not just about an abstract legal norm. It’s a blow to the foundation of Zionism, to the connection between Israel and the global Jewish diaspora. But most importantly – it’s a tool. A means of redistributing power in Israeli society.

Verb-based xenophobia

The argumentation of deputies advocating for a review of the law is built on banal rhetoric: ‘Gentiles, who have no relation to Judaism, spoil our country.’ Here we have ‘damage to the Jewish character,’ ‘waste of state funds,’ and demographic alarm in a pseudo-religious wrapper. This is not mainstream, but it’s not a new tune either: it has been voiced at different times – by left-wing Israeli elites, by religious nationalists. And even earlier – by Arab leaders, but for a different reason: they were against repatriation as such. The common tone – fear of the foreign, masked by rhetoric about ‘values.’

But the main thing is not the fear. The main thing is the right to decide who is ‘ours’ and who is ‘foreign.’ Who will get the right to citizenship, to resources, to a voice. Who will be part of society, and who will remain at its threshold.

Repatriation as a political resource

Changing the Law of Return means not just changing the legal definition of ‘Jew.’ It means changing the rules of the game. Until now, Israel has followed a simple and generous principle: if you had a Jew in your family – even a grandfather or grandmother, not to mention one of the parents – you have the right to repatriate to Israel. This is a resolution of historical trauma, a response to the Catastrophe, an answer to anti-Semitism and the vulnerability of Jews.
Those who want to narrow this right offer nothing in return. They do not propose a system of integration, educational work, or honest dialogue. They just want to close the door. And thus – take away the tool of bringing Israel and the diaspora closer. That is, to strike at the very connection that makes Israel not just a country, but a historical homeland.

History repeats itself, but from the other end

The paradox is that almost identical formulations were voiced by the enemies of Israel – from Arafat to marginal anti-Zionists in Europe. They thought that the flow of Jews from the USSR would change the map of the region, ‘demographically occupy’ the Middle East.
Now the same is claimed by their own. Only in a different language – the language of halachic definitions, religious ‘purity,’ and ‘responsibility for the future of the people.’ Behind the loud words is the same struggle for control: over the population, its composition, values, future.

The false flag of Judaism

Surprisingly, this attack occurs at a moment when anti-Semitism in the world reaches a critical point. The Rabbi of the Great Synagogue of Paris openly says: ‘Jews have no future in France.’ And at this very moment, the Israeli state – the very one that was created as a refuge for Jews of all gradations, shades, and trajectories – suddenly decides that grandchildren are not Jewish enough.
The pathos of fighting for the ‘purity of the Jewish people’ masks another goal – a monopoly on the interpretation of Judaism. In other words – on power. This is a struggle not for Judaism, but for the right to define who is a Jew.

The reason and the pretext

They say, to understand what is happening, one must learn to distinguish between the reason and the pretext. The pretext – concern for the Jewish character of Israel. The reason – fear that Israel will remain secular, democratic, and universal. Fear that Judaism cannot be confined within the bounds of halacha, the national registry, and political quotas.
But Zionism from the very beginning was built as the antithesis of this fear. It was a movement to open doors, not to lock them. Repatriation is not a bureaucratic filter, but a historical debt. And those who want to cancel it, let them honestly say: they are not only canceling the Law of Return. They are canceling Israel as a project itself.