The war in Ukraine has been raging for two weeks now and the humanitarian situation is deteriorating fast. More and more Ukrainians are attempting to escape the fighting and borders to Poland and Moldova are swamped with refugees who want to cross into safety. More than one and a half million people have already fled Ukraine and the number is to increase considerably in the coming days if the reports of a cease-fire in the big cities to allow civilian evacuation may be believed. The world, and in particular Europe, is preparing to absorb and take care of these refugees, and countries like Poland, Hungary and Moldova, being countries bordering on Ukraine, are flooded with frightened people, hungry and cold.
Most of these refugees, still hope and believe that, once the fighting stops, they will be able to return and rebuild their home and their country, but at the moment, with weather still wintry and cold, these masses of people need shelter, food and warmth. Other European countries have stepped up and Germany, Holland and Scandinavian countries are rapidly taking in tens of thousands of these people.
Also Israel is very active in assisting the refugees, with medical aid, food, and assistance to escape the war zone. But, while no doubt, the Israeli teams do the best they can and risk their lives to save others, there is a significant difference between the activities of Israel and the European countries. While Israeli rescue workers will help anyone they can, the emphasis of their activities is geared towards Jewish Ukrainians (and of course Israeli citizens who still remained behind even though they had been urged time and again to leave while they still could).
In Israel, politicians have already interfered with the rescue operations by Israeli teams and in particular the refugees that manage to get onto a plane to Israel are a serious concern to some of Israel’s political leaders.
Until now, several thousand Ukrainians have managed to reach Israel, but what worries the politicians is the fact that many of them are not Jewish, and not even eligible for immigration under the Law of Return (for which being a Jew under Halacha rules is not required).
The Interior Ministry and its minister, Ayelet Shaked, are very reluctant to come with exacts numbers, but it is known that upon arrival at Ben Gurion Airport, people were sorted and an unknown number was returned to where they came from because they are not Jewish. When realizing the inhumanity of deporting people became clear to the powers that be, they came up with a new solution: Any refugee, who is not eligible under the Law of Return to immigrate to Israel, will be allowed to enter, upon declaring that they will leave within one year, AND deposit a guarantee of NIS 10,000. This absurd requirement, has led to heartbreaking situations at the Airport, where people who did not have the money, or relatives or friends in Israel who could provide the cash, were left behind, in limbo and most likely were deported.
While several ministers have strongly protested this inhuman behavior by the Israeli government, others have expressed their worries about Israel being flooded by Goyim and that “this situation cannot go on”. Ridiculous arguments like by Ayelet Shaked, that Israel has (relative to its population) taken in more refugees than any other country cannot hide the clear racism that emanates from these measures. In the Knesset voices are raised (again) to repeal the grandparent clause in the Law of Return (this clause allows anyone who has a Jewish grandparent to immigrate to Israel) and thus stemming the flow of Non-halachic Jews trying to immigrate to Israel.
Israel has not learned from its own horrific past. The ships with Jewish refugees in the 30’s, sailing from harbor to harbor, being refused entry and often being forced to return to Germany, delivering the people to the gas chambers. Has it been forgotten? “Selection” was invented by the Nazis, to separate the Jews from all others, it is now applied to filter out the Goyim? It is inconceivable that the State of Israel, in times of war, when refugees are knocking on her door, will open the gate only if they are Jewish.
Israel doesn’t want the refugees here. But that is definitely a two-way feeling. These refugees want only one thing. To go home as soon as this is possible. Even most of the “Jews” eligible to immigrate would never have given a single though to living in Israel. The many thousands of “Israelis” living in Ukraine live there because they want to and until now they did not have a need to be saved by their Israeli passport of their Jewishness, nor will they stay here when all this is over. So, most likely Israel does not need to worry about this “flood of Goyim”. It will flow back the moment it can. And then Israel can only hope that the Ukrainian men and women that worked here before the war, taking care of our elderly, will be willing to stay on.
Israel does need to worry about the moral issues that this war has exposed in her midst. While of course, the institutional racism has been there always and is getting worse with time, it is to be hoped that the raw exposure of this inhuman behavior will set in motion a process of change and allow a more humanitarian approach to refugees and their plight.
I hope you found this article interesting and I welcome any comments you may have.
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