De Israelische Terreur 754

'A very typical, everyday story in Israel, but it sheds fresh light on Israeli "democracy" ...

Imagine the Netherlands blocking an Israeli Jew, whose father is a Calvinist and lives in Rottedam, and who herself wants to convert to Christianity, from becoming a citizen of the Netherlands because she is not Christian enough!

Of course this Dutch woman, unwittingly perhaps, is taking part in a six-decade old process of colonization of an ethnically cleansed land, but that's not my main point here.

The ultra-Orthodox, fundamentalist officialdom (mostly Ashkenazi religious fanatics of Lithuanian descent) is in full control of the process of conversion to Judaism, among other vital domestic domains in Israeli society. They carry out thorough examinations of how Jewish a person is (whether the mother or gradmother is Jewish, mainly), and, if the person qualifies, he/she must then undergo an intrusive, oppressive and humiliating process of actual conversion and subjected to tests to cofirm proper conversion.

Now imagine how it must feel to be a Palestinian refugee, part of the indigenous people of the land, who was ethnically cleansed over 60 years ago and is still not allowed back to his/her home simply because he/she is of the wrong identity (Muslim or Christian).

This is what passes for "the only democracy in the Middle East."

Omar Barghouti

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1066552.html
Haaretz 24/02/2009
Dutch social worker with Israeli father blocked from making aliyah
By Dana Weiler-Polak

Esther Timmerman could have lived almost anywhere she wanted. That is how it is when you are born in Holland and carry a Dutch passport. For many Israelis, this would be a dream come true. But Timmerman, 38, decided she wanted to live in Israel - and that is when her problems began. Her connection to Israel began many years earlier. "My father, Judah, always felt an attraction to Judaism," she said. "My father began to study Judaism back in the 1980s. He began to visit synagogues and came to Israel for the first time in 1991, and felt that this was his home." Judah Timmerman, now 70, eventually decided to convert to Judaism. He has been an Israeli citizen for 16 years and lives in Gan Yavneh. Meanwhile, Esther studied social work and worked with the elderly in Amsterdam. But she always felt something was missing. Then, five years ago, her mother died, and her sister eventually suggested that she shake off a lingering depression by visiting her father in Israel. "I came here in 2007, and then, for the first time, I understood that this is what was missing. Here, I had a feeling of completeness, that this is where I had to be." She visited her father again in March 2008 and stayed for six months, volunteering at the Mishan nursing home in Jerusalem. Finally, she decided to convert. That was when the trouble began. When her visa expired, she went to the Interior Ministry to renew it, armed with a letter from Mishan. She also mentioned that her father lived in Israel and that she was in the process of converting. But the clerk told her a new law required her to renew her visa from overseas and gave her 10 days to leave the country. "I didn't know what to do, I was really panicked," she said. Eventually, she appealed to the ministry again, and this time was told to return with a copy of her birth certificate. Getting one took weeks, during which time her visa expired and she became an illegal resident. The ministry also told her to produce confirmation from the Conversion Committee, which is part of the Prime Minister's Office, that she was in the process of converting. But the committee told her she first needed a valid visa. Finally, she went to Amsterdam and mailed the ministry a visa application, but it was turned down without explanation. Next, she went to the Israeli embassy and the Jewish Agency, which both told her that her father's residency entitled her to a two-year visa. Meanwhile, she is continuing conversion studies and Hebrew lessons. "But I feel caught between the hammer and the anvil," she said. "The Interior Ministry and the Conversion Committee each depend on the other and no one is willing to understand that there's a problem. I'm studying and not giving up because I want to be part of Judaism. That's how I was raised and that's what's important to me. With a Dutch passport I can go to any European country, but I want to be in Israel, to work with Alzheimer's patients as I was doing. I'm not seeking any support from the state; I just want to be part of it, to live alongside my father." The Interior Ministry said in response that Timmerman's visa application was rejected because she spent three months here last year without a visa and the Conversion Committee rejected her application to convert. "Ms. Timmerman does not meet the criteria for receiving [legal] status in Israel," it said. "Moreover, as long as she hasn't obtained a permit to convert in Israel, she has no legal possibility of receiving status by virtue of her father's status in Israel." The ministry, it added, has no power over the Conversion Committee's decisions.'