Israel: Treatment of Russians in Israel

A 12 December 2001 Associated Press (AP) report states that since 1989, 900,000 Russian-speakers emigrated to Israel, increasing the country's Jewish population by almost 20 per cent, for a total of 5.2 million. As a result, the Russian-speaking immigrants, which make up 14 per cent of Israel's population, have contributed to make Israel "more European, and less religious", and have become a growing political force (ibid.). The report also states that:

There are schools, bars, restaurants, even entire neighborhoods that are solidly Russian-speaking. Russian-language dailies abound. A Russian-language TV station is about to go on the air. It will run Hebrew subtitles in hopes of bridging the divide between immigrants and Israelis (ibid.).

The report indicates however that only 35 per cent of immigrants with university degrees are working in their fields and that the overall unemployment rate was 13 per cent for this group, compared to the national average of 9 per cent. Some complain of being stereotyped as "racketeers, prostitutes and alcoholics" by Jews from older communities (ibid.). The report states that the relationship between religion and state in Israel is a major source of bitterness, and that:

The law says one Jewish grandparent entitles an immigrant to instant citizenship. But the rabbis who control marriage and divorce, manage most cemeteries and wield enormous political clout, have a tougher definition: only a person with a Jewish mother is Jewish.

Immigrants have occasionally been denied a Jewish burial, even in cases where they died in military service or in terrorist attacks. In 1993, a rabbi refused to pray over the grave of an immigrant killed in a bus bombing. She, unlike her husband, wasn't Jewish, and was buried in a non-Jewish section of the cemetery.

There have been feuds between ultra-Orthodox Jews and the immigrant owners of non-kosher butcher shops. The Jewishness of some new arrivals is scrutinized, right down to DNA tests to show they have Jewish relatives (ibid.).

A December 1998 article in Hadassah Magazine, a monthly publication published by the New York-based Women Zionists Organization of America, states that:

Over the last decade almost 800,000 Russians have come to live in Israel. The nation is long over the shock of how to find them jobs and housing but is still struggling with issues about the Jewishness of the country; a quarter of the immigrants are not halakhically Jewish. People are also torn between conflicting impressions. On one hand the Russians are highly cultured and disciplined, raising the level of music and theater; on the other there is alcoholism, prostitution and organized crime. But notwithstanding the displacement that inevitably takes its toll, both Israel and the majority of the Russian Jews have cut a good deal.

A 15 May 2001 Interfax report quotes the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and special presidential envoy for the Middle-East peace process, Vasily Sredin, as saying that:

"The Russian-speaking community occupies a rather influential place in all spheres of Israeli society. Its members hold ministerial posts, become Knesset deputies, and find their niche in Israel's economic, cultural, scientific, and educational spheres."

"Discrimination against the members of the Russian-speaking community is just out of the question," Sredin said.

"Several hundreds of thousands people have emigrated to Israel from Russia and former Soviet republics in the past years, and the number of so-called 'Russian' Israelis now stands at a million," he noted.

"Many of them retain Russian citizenship: about 60,000 people are registered with our consulate in Israel, and this is far from being a complete figure," Sredin said.

"Naturally, one cannot avoid certain technical problems with such a large-scale migration," he said.

These problems pertain to "employment, accommodation, social welfare, and routine and language adaptation," the diplomat said, adding that "we try to not only preserve various links with people coming from Russia but also to develop them."

No additional information on the treatment of Russians in Israel could be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Associated Press (AP). 12 December 2001. Jason Keyser. "A Decade Later, Russian Jews and Israel Have Profoundly Changed Each Other." (NEXIS)

Hadassah Magazine [New York]. December 1998. Rochelle Furstenberg. "Israeli Life: A Critical Mass of Russians." [Accessed 27 Mar. 2002]

Interfax. 15 March 2001. "Israeli Foreign Minister to Visit Moscow." (NEXIS)

Additional Sources Consulted

IRB Databases

Internet sites including:

Amnesty International

Country Reports 2001

European Country of Origin Information Network (ECOI)

Fédération Internationale des ligues des droits de l'homme (FIDH)

Human Rights Watch (HRW)

Migration News

World News Connection (WNC)