Messianic Jews Demand Israeli Citizenship

Three UK residents petition High Court, say state is denying their right of return due to bias against their faith.

Three Messianic Jews residing in Britain filed a petition with the High Court of Justice Wednesday in an effort to convince Interior Minister Eli Yishai to grant them citizenship.

John Christopher and Nina and Kevin Aires are members of a faith that believes Jesus Christ is the Messiah but see themselves as Jews.

The petition states that Christopher’s grandfather and Nina Aires’ grandmother were Jewish, which grants them the right of return by law.

They claim they have appealed to the Interior Ministry a number of times but were rejected because they are Messianic Jews. They say the ministry sees members of their faith as missionaries and has denied their appeals for this reason.

The three say they have done nothing to warrant a denial of citizenship that is theirs by law and that they are Zionists who want to make Israel their home.

The petitioners claim the Interior Ministry is behaving in a discriminatory manner and persecuting them for their beliefs. The State’s response has not yet been filed.

Israel News  |  Aviad Glickman

Submitted by: Levi, May 6th, 2009 Topic: Messianic Believers
Tags: Israel, israel, messianic, Messianic , Messianic, messianic jews, Messianic Jews, MessianicBelievers

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1 Comment

Tonga commented on May 07, 2009:

This is interesting because according to Jewish law John Christopherson is not a Jew. Nina may be if she has an unbroken maternal Jewish line. So John should be eligible for aliyah because he is not a Jew but does fall into the guidelines of those who make aliyah based on some Jewish heritage. Nina would be out of luck as of now. There was recently a case in the Israel courts where some Messianics who were not Jewish according to Jewish law, but proclaimed themselves Jews because of some Jewish ancestors were being blocked from aliyah. They won their court case based on the fact that they aren't Jews, and thus should be eligible to become citizens.

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