Israel is asking Ukrainian Jewish refugees to immigrate to Israel; calls the Russian invasion on Ukraine as the real opportunity but experts say, the move aims to maintain Jewish demographic “supremacy” over the Palestinian population.
Since the outbreak of the war with Russia on February 24, the Israeli government has called only on Ukrainian Jewish refugees and not the Ukrainians to immigrate to Israel and removed bureaucratic hurdles to secure their arrival as quickly as possible.
“We call on the Jews of Ukraine to immigrate to Israel – your home,” Israel’s Ministry of Immigration and Absorption said on February 26.
So far, at least 100 Ukrainian Jews arrived on two flights and some 300 others will arrive on three flights on Sunday.
The Israel Government officials said some 10,000 are expected to arrive in the coming weeks.
On Sunday, the World Zionist Organization’s Settlement Division – which is funded by the Israeli government and falls under its direct control – ordered the construction of 1000 housing settlements in both Israel and settlements in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories.
“Israel is seeing in the Ukraine crisis a real opportunity to bring Jewish people to increase the number of Jews in Israel,” Al Jazeera quoted Lana Tatour, professor of settler-colonialism and human rights at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.
While it is important to recognise that there is a real refugee crisis in Ukraine,” which “everyone has a duty to care for”, Tatour said it must be noted that “Israel is not opening its borders for Ukrainian refugees – it is opening its borders for Jewish Ukrainian refugees.”