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Reports: Number of Israelis Applying for German Citizenship Soaring
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| 498 Israeli applications for German citizenship in January & February
2002
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HAMBURG,
June 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The number of Israelis
applying for German citizenship has soared since the outbreak of the
latest Intifada in the Middle East, a German newspaper reported
Monday, June 17.
Der
Spiegel said
that since September 2000, the number of applications for citizenship
received at the German embassy in Tel Aviv has risen steadily, with
498 Israelis appealing for citizenship in January and February of this
year alone.
The
figure was more than double the number counted during the same period
in 2001, according to Der Spiegel. There were nearly 1,253
applications for the whole of 2000.
The magazine quoted diplomats as saying that many of the Israelis had
filed an application as an "insurance policy" in case the
crisis in the region escalates and that they do not necessarily intend
to emigrate immediately.
Last year, 1,751 applications were received and the number is expected
to exceed 3,000 this year, the British daily newspaper, The Guardian
reported.
"It
has to be said that the majority of applicants do not intend to move
to Germany; they want to stay in Israel if at all possible," a
diplomat told Der Spiegel.
Article
116 of German’s Basic Law meant to offer a degree of recompense for
the Holocaust guarantees that people persecuted under the Nazi regime
or stripped of their citizenship because of race, religion or politics
have a life-long right to secure German citizenship. The clause also
includes offspring and other relatives.
"This
has happened before when things reach crisis point in the
region," Erwin Ganzer, spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry,
told BBC online news service.
"The
majority of those who have received citizenship have not in fact moved
here. But it's clearly important to some people that they have
somewhere secure, if need be, to escape to," he added.
The
recent trend has shown no sign of waning, despite a fierce
anti-Semitism debate which began in Germany after Jürgen Möllemann,
the deputy leader of the liberal FDP party, compared the Israeli
government's tactics towards Palestinians to those of the Nazi regime,
the Guardian said.
Jewish
groups in Germany have taken to the streets to protest the remarks,
calling for Möllemann to resign. A book by a leading German
author, Martin Walser, has also prompted much soul-searching after
critics declared it to be anti-Semitic, said the paper.
According
to the paper, a recent poll published by the Sigmund Freud Institute
in Frankfurt showed an increase in anti-Semitism.
Thirty-six
per cent of those polled said they would agree with the statement
"I can understand very well that some people are unpleasant
towards Jews," compared with 20% three years ago.
The
number of Jews moving to Germany, mainly from the former Soviet Union,
has risen exponentially since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989,
with some cities seeing a tenfold increase in their Jewish
populations.
The
growth has often caused tension within the existing Jewish community,
many of whose members say those from the east claiming to be Jews are
not always genuine.
The
Nazis revoked the German citizenship of most of the country's 600,000
Jews in 1941.
In
another development, the German foreign ministry announced Monday that
nearly 593,000 euros (557,400 dollars) are offered in aid to
Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip "to ease the
difficult humanitarian situation" there.
Funds will primarily go to the United Nations relief agency for
Palestinian refugees UNRWA to supply medicine and house the homeless,
the ministry said in a statement carried by Agence France-Presse
(AFP).
It will also finance UNRWA schools in Gaza and send experts to assist
the International Committee of the Red Cross in repairing damaged
buildings in Jenin and Nablus.
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