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MAZUZ: LAW OF RETURN APPLIES TO ALL JEWISH CONVERTS
by Relly Sa'ar
Haaretz, August 26, 2004
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz believes that the only legal way to prevent granting Israeli citizenship to persons undergoing a Reform or Conservative conversion in Israel is by changing the Law of Return.
According to the existing situation, a non-Orthodox conversion in Israel is not recognized for matters of civil status.
Mazuz presented his point of view at a recent debate in his office attended by senior officials from the Justice and Interior ministries, the cabinet secretary and the head of conversion affairs in the Prime Minister's Office.
The aim of the debate was to examine whether the Orthodox monopoly on conversion should be maintained. The state's legal representatives must respond to the High Court on this issue in a few weeks.
Mazuz said that if the state is interested in preventing persons undergoing Reform and Conservative conversions in Israel from receiving Israeli citizenship, it must "initiate amendments to legislation that will keep the status according to the Law of Return from anyone converting in Israel."
This places Mazuz close to the view of Interior Minister Avraham Poraz, who informed Mazuz a month ago that he would grant Israeli citizenship to 11 foreign workers and tourists who have lived here for several years and undergone conversion and write "Jewish" as their nationality in their ID cards.
They are part of a group of 17 converts, some of them from the Philippines and Peru, who appealed to the High Court five years ago to recognize their conversions for citizenship purposes. Poraz was in fact applying the instructions of the High Court on the issue.
An 11-man bench of justices ruled a few weeks ago that the Law of Return that confers Israeli citizenship on every Jew would be applicable also to those who converted in Israel and had previously had permanent residence. But the court ordered the state to present its point of view regarding those who had undergone Reform and Conservative conversions.
In a letter to Mazuz a month ago, Poraz said he had formulated his stance after representatives of the Reform and Conservative movements had committed themselves to "upholding a responsible and well-balanced policy of preventing the exploitation of the conversion process." In other words, the intention was that foreign workers would not merely be allowed to convert for citizenship purposes.
Poraz told Mazuz he believed that an Orthodox process was not the only way to convert. He said tens of thousands of new immigrants were left without a solution because of this.
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