Supreme Court candidate proposes limiting Law of Return

[Poll_Blind]

From Ha'aretz:

Supreme Court candidate Ruth Gabison has proposed in a recent position paper that the Law of Return be significantly restricted, in order to limit Jewish immigration from countries with "a different culture."

"There is no reason to grant rights on the basis of the Return to individuals who have no interest in a Jewish lifestyle, and at times are even devout members of a different religious community," wrote Professor Gabison.

The proposal is apparently intended to revoke the right to immigrate from the Falashmura, who are the descendants of Ethiopian Jews who converted to Christianity, as well as some of the children and grandchildren of Jews from former Soviet states.

According to Gabison, limits on the immigration of Jews from "a different culture" must be considered. "Serious thought must be given to the immigration of large groups of people from a different culture," she wrote. "This is seen in a dramatic manner in the difficult absorption of Ethiopian immigrants in Israel."
--snip--

  It used to be just about giving all Jews a safe haven and some of the wording in Israel's founding documents is no less poetic on that point than what follows. However, Ruth (oh the irony in that name!) is in a growing number who seem to think it's only about letting the right Jews in. We Americans are a familiar with this approach. The golden door is closing and they that close it feed the tempest.

The New Colossus,Emma Lazarus, 1883
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

PB

[papau]

1. For fear of a maximum 20,000 this lady would overturn a tradition dating to middle ages?

In 2003 the Israeli government officially approved the Interior Ministry's plan for the immigration of the remaining Falashmura community of Ethiopia - the 20000 descended from Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews) who converted to Christianity in the nineteenth century. The Shas party has championed their cause, however, and Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef has ruled that they are Jewish because they converted to Christianity because of fear. living as Christians, but at home preserving their Jewish culture. Since the Middle Ages, rabbis have ruled that Jews who are forced to profess another religion must be accepted by the community if they choose to return. Jewish law distinguishes between anousim - those who are converted by force - and apostates, and Maimonides, among others, ruled that anousim who return to Judaism must be welcomed even if they had practiced other religions for generations.

She appears to be saying that they had not converted due to fear and are not sincere in their desire to return to Judaism.

If true that they are not sincere, why does it take a change in the Law of Return to find a way to reject those individuals?