Israel's Population and Immigration Authority (PIBA) has refused to allow a 75-year-old US citizen and son of an Auschwitz survivor to make aliyah, citing his Messianic Judaism affiliation and accusing him of intending to carry out missionary work in Israel.
According to his lawyer, the PIBA ordered him to leave Israel within a month.
Per Israel's Law of Return, the man, whose identity has not been revealed, is entitled to make aliyah, with his father having been a Jewish survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp, where his grandmother was killed, and his mother being a Christian.
The man founded and ran an association in the United States that provided aid to members of the Messianic Jewish community.
The man has never hidden his Messianic affiliations, having founded and run an association in the US to provide other Messianic Jews with aid, and openly declared them in his immigration interview with the PIBA, which he said “was conducted in the style of an interrogation.”
Law of Return?
The man's attorney, Joshua Pex, has filed suit against the Interior Ministry, under whose auspices the PIBA operates.
According to Pex, the PIBA is acting in violation of several High Court of Justice rulings and is falsely accusing his client of being a missionary – and even if that were true, it isn't a reason to deny him citizenship.
Rather, his desire to make aliyah was motivated by an old dream he wished to fulfill after his retirement, and due to a rise in antisemitism in the US.
He had been trying to apply for citizenship for himself and his wife for the past four years, but to no avail, and the PIBA has repeatedly denied his requests.