Russia’s Justice Ministry has filed a legal appeal to a Moscow district court demanding that the Jewish Agency be removed from the list of NGOs registered in the country and end its activities in the country, Russian state media reported on Thursday.
If the court accepts the lawsuit, the decision will make it significantly more difficult for Jews to emigrate to Israel and create a serious crisis in relations between the two countries. Apart from emigration, the Jewish Agency oversees a host of educational and welfare activities in Jewish communities throughout Russia.
A letter sent from Russia’s Justice Ministry last week to the Jewish Agency accused it of violating Russian law. The first court hearing on the matter is scheduled for next Thursday, July 28.
Israeli Ambassador to Russia Alexander Ben Zvi met last week with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov about the actions against the Jewish Agency, the first time that an Israeli Foreign Ministry official intervened in the matter.
Bogdanov told Ben-Tzvi he would examine the issue and denied that the Justice Ministry’s actions are politically based. Despite Bogdanov’s words, many Israeli officials believe that the move is being carried out to signal Moscow’s dissatisfaction with Israel’s policy on the war in Ukraine.
Additionally, the move against the Agency came immediately after Yair Lapid entered the role of prime minister. According to a Channel 12 News report on Wednesday, Russia’s Ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov conveyed in recent closed meetings that Russia is unhappy about Lapid’s leadership due to his past harsh condemnations of the war in Ukraine. Lapid publicly stated that Russia’s actions in Ukraine are war crimes.
There are growing fears among Israeli officials and Jewish leaders that Russia may be preparing to ban emigration to Israel altogether.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
Why is Israel concerned with people who are willing to liv
Why is Israel concerned with people who are willing to live in Putin country? Give them a 2 week notice, accept those who want to leave and close the office. Even Noah wouldn’t open the window after he was buoyed.
Come back in 40 years to pick up those who are innocent kids right now.
https://twitter.com/avirab/status/1550474444761698308
Putin & the Jews: parallel to Pharaoh: The : #Bible’s strange reason Pharaoh enslaved the Jews – to prevent the Jews from leaving!
Putin values Jews’ contributions to #Russia economy, so he’s closing the Jewish Agency office there which promotes/helps emigration to Is,to prevent talented Jews’s leaving – when quite ironically they are leaving due to his own policies!
Putin often said:
1. loss of Jews’s in past years was a great tragedy for Russia
2. he’d be glad to get them back,
3. he has warm feelings & protective to Is because it now has a million Russians there who value russian culture&language.
But Putin’s closing of the Jewish Agency operations may scare Russia’s Jews, to run away before the gates close again…
(But note that having a million ex-Russians in a country is a recipe for annexation by Putin!)