CAIRO,
November 29 (IslamOnline.net) – The Polish embassy in Tel Aviv is
striving to cope with a sweeping number of Israelis, young and old,
applying for a Polish passport, opting for a better life back in their
native country, Germany's Deutsche Welle reported Sunday, November 28.
Every
Monday morning, they line up in front of the embassy, digging deep into
their pasts in an attempt to prove to authorities that they are entitled
to a Polish passport, the leading broadcasting organization said.
“We
can accept about 100 applications a month, approximately half of the
applicants get a positive answer from Poland,” an embassy official
told DW.
Margaret
Rok, who works for a law firm helping Israelis fill out necessary
documents and applications, said her company has been inundated by
requests.
“We
have more and more Israeli people coming to us and we're opening a new
service especially for them,” she said.
Homesickness
Many
Israelis have an irresistible feeling of homesickness and want to get
closer to their roots.
“I
want to be a part of it,” said arts manager Yosi Notkowitz. “I'm
like a bridge from the past to the future.”
For
thousands of Polish Jews now living in Israel, the question of identity
is a complex one.
Until
the 1970s, leading politicians in the Israeli parliament used to argue
in Polish.
Intifada
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Many
Polish Jews want to get closer to their roots
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Many
of the applicants attributed their reverse immigration to the unabated
Palestinian Intifada and stagnant economic conditions in Israel.
“Israel
is not the most stable place. I want to have a place to go to which will
be easier,” said Michael Kerner, 43, an Israeli with two children.
“I
would like to have a Polish passport as insurance for my future,”
added Kerner, whose father and mother were born and raised in Poland.
Poland,
once the country they and their families turned their backs on, is
beginning to look more attractive, particularly after it joined the
expanding European Union on May 1.
“Young
people know that Poland is now in Europe and they want to be free to
travel, not to be pressed to show the Israeli passport which always can
be attacked because of the (Arab-Israeli) conflict,” added Miriam
Akavia, a novelist who arrived in Israel from Poland in the late 1940s.
The
Jewish Agency admitted last year that the Palestinian Intifada against
the Israeli occupation and sluggish Israeli economy had led to a
significant dwindling of Jewish immigration to Israel in 2003.
Total
immigration rates decreased by 31%, compared to the rates of 2002.
According
to a count by Agence France-Presse (AFP), some 12,500 Jews immigrated
to Israel in 2003 from the Soviet Union compared to 18,500 in 2002.
Around
3,000 immigrants arrived from Ethiopia in 2002, and 2,500 from the US in
2003, compared to 1,900 in 2002.
Furthermore,
1,200 immigrants have arrived from Argentine in 2003, compared to 6,000
during 2002.
On
April 18, 1948, Palestinian Tiberius was captured by Jewish Menachem
Begin's Irgun gang, putting its 5,500 Palestinian residents in flight.
On April 22, Haifa fell to the Jewish mobs and 70,000 Palestinians fled.
Irgun
began on April 25 bombarding civilian sectors of the Palestinian city of
Jaffa - the largest city in Palestine at that time, terrifying the
750,000 inhabitants into panicky flight.
On
May 14, the day before the creation of Israel on the rubble of Palestine
and bodies of the Palestinians, Jaffa completely surrendered to the much
better-equipped Jewish gangs and only about 4,500 of its population
remained.
Days
before the 12,000 Palestinians of Safed were routed and Beisan, with
6,000 Palestinians, fell.
In
1967, approximately 200,000 Palestinians fled their homes in the West
Bank and the Gaza Strip when Israel launched a war against Jordan, Syria
and Egypt, capturing and occupying the West Bank, including Al-Quds and
the Gaza Strip (the Occupied Palestinian Territories).
Most
Palestinians believe that the four-year-old Intifada, which
inflicted
heavy losses
on the occupation forces, should go non-stop because it is the only way
to liberate their homeland.
They
believe the second Intifada has
made
history and
come along way compared to the 1987 -1993 first Intifada.
As
many as 600,000 Israeli Jews have emigrated or become permanent citizens
in North America, Australia, or Europe since the beginning of the second
Intifada, according to AFP.
