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Law of Return 5710-1950

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aliasesLaw of Return, Law of Return 5710 (1950)

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Summary

Israel’s Law of Return 5710-1950, passed by the Knesset on 5 July 1950, together with its two amendments as printed in this file — the Amendment 5714-1954 and Amendment No. 2 5730-1970: the 1950 law gives every Jew the right to come to the country as an oleh, by an oleh’s visa or, after arrival, an oleh’s certificate, subject only to exclusion for activity directed against the Jewish people or likely danger to public health or the security of the State, and deems every Jew who immigrated before the law or was born in the country an oleh under it; the 1954 amendment adds exclusion of a person with a criminal past likely to endanger public welfare and substitutes the Minister of the Interior for the Minister of Immigration; the 1970 amendment vests the same rights in a child and grandchild of a Jew and in the spouses of a Jew, of a child of a Jew and of a grandchild of a Jew, except a person who has been a Jew and voluntarily changed his religion, defines “Jew” for the law as a person born of a Jewish mother or converted to Judaism who is not a member of another religion, and inserts the same definition into the Population Registry Law, 5725-1965, with a bar on registering as a Jew a person a notification, registry entry or public document indicates is not a Jew (Law of Return 5710-1950, PDF p.1-4).

What the file is

The English text of the three enactments in one 4-page file, about 1,090 words in the text copy: the Law of Return 5710-1950 on PDF p.1, the Law of Return (Amendment 5714-1954) on PDF p.2, and the Law of Return (Amendment No. 2) 5730-1970 beginning on PDF p.2, continuing on PDF p.3, with its footnotes alone on PDF p.4. Each enactment gives its Knesset passage date in both the Hebrew and Gregorian calendars, its Sefer Ha-Chukkim publication details, and its signatories. The text copy was checked against the original; the original reads the same wording cleanly, including the punctuation points noted in Section by section. No Hebrew text, table or figure appears in the file.

Section by section

  • Law of Return 5710-1950, section 1, Right of aliyah (PDF p.1). “Every Jew has the right to come to this country as an oleh” (the text copy prints “oleh**”, the double asterisk marking the translator’s note). The translator’s note defines the terms: “Aliyah means immigration of Jews, and oleh (plural: olim) means a Jew immigrating, into Israel” (comma before “into Israel” as printed).
  • Section 2, Oleh’s visa (PDF p.1). Aliyah shall be by oleh’s visa. An oleh’s visa shall be granted to every Jew who has expressed his desire to settle in Israel, unless the Minister of Immigration is satisfied that the applicant is engaged in an activity directed against the Jewish people, or is likely to endanger public health or the security of the State.
  • Section 3, Oleh’s certificate (PDF p.1). A Jew who has come to Israel and after arrival has expressed his desire to settle in Israel may, while still in Israel, receive an oleh’s certificate. The section 2(b) restrictions apply also to the certificate, but a person shall not be regarded as endangering public health on account of an illness contracted after his arrival in Israel.
  • Section 4, Residents and persons born in this country (PDF p.1). Every Jew who has immigrated into this country before the coming into force of this Law, and every Jew who was born in this country, whether before or after the coming into force of this Law, shall be deemed to be a person who has come to this country as an oleh under this Law.
  • Section 5, Implementation and regulations (PDF p.1). The Minister of Immigration is charged with implementation and may make regulations on any matter relating to implementation and on the grant of oleh’s visas and oleh’s certificates to minors up to the age of 18 years.
  • 1950 signatories and passage footnote (PDF p.1). Signed by David Ben-Gurion, Prime Minister, Moshe Shapira, Minister of Immigration, and Yosef Sprinzak, Acting President of the State and Chairman of the Knesset. Passed by the Knesset on the 20th Tammuz, 5710 (5th July, 1950) and published in Sefer Ha-Chukkim No. 51 of the 21st Tammuz, 5710 (5th July. 1950), p. 159 — the second date printed with a full stop after “July”, as printed; the Bill and an Explanatory Note were published in Hatza’ot Chok No. 48 of the 12th Tammuz, 5710 (27th June, 1950), p. 189.
  • Law of Return (Amendment 5714-1954), section 1, Amendment of section 2(b) (PDF p.2). The full stop at the end of paragraph (2) is replaced by a semi-colon and the word “or” inserted, and a new paragraph (3) is inserted: a person with a criminal past, likely to endanger public welfare, is added to the grounds for refusing an oleh’s visa.
  • Amendment 5714-1954, section 2, Amendment of sections 2 and 5 (PDF p.2). In sections 2 and 5, “the Minister of Immigration” is replaced by “the Minister of the Interior”.
  • 1954 signatories and footnotes (PDF p.2). Signed by Moshe Sharett, Prime Minister, Yosef Serlin, Minister of Health and Acting Minister of the Interior, and Yitzchak Ben-Zvi, President of the State. Passed on the 24th Av, 5714 (23rd August, 1954), published in Sefer Ha-Chukkim No. 163 of the 3rd Elul, 5714 (1st September, 1954), p. 174; Bill and Explanatory Note in Hatza’ot Chok No. 192 of 5714, p. 88. The 1950 law is cited as Sefer Ha-Chukkim No. 51 of 5710, p. 159, LSI vol. IV, 114.
  • Law of Return (Amendment No. 2) 5730-1970, section 1, Addition of sections 4A and 4B (PDF p.2-3). Sections 4A and 4B are inserted after section 4 of the 1950 law, in the wording given in the next three entries.
  • New section 4A, Rights of members of family (PDF p.2-3). The rights of a Jew under this Law and the rights of an oleh under the Nationality Law, 5712-1952, as well as the rights of an oleh under any other enactment, are also vested in a child and a grandchild of a Jew, the spouse of a Jew, the spouse of a child of a Jew and the spouse of a grandchild of a Jew, except for a person who has been a Jew and has voluntarily changed his religion (the sentence is split across the PDF p.2-3 page break). It is immaterial whether the Jew by whose right a right is claimed is still alive or has immigrated to Israel. The restrictions and conditions prescribed for a Jew or an oleh by or under this Law or the enactments referred to also apply to a person claiming a right under subsection (a).
  • New section 4B, Definition (PDF p.3). For the purposes of this Law, “Jew” means a person who was born of a Jewish mother or has become converted to Judaism and who is not a member of another religion.
  • Amendment No. 2, section 2, Amendment of section 5 (PDF p.3). Added to section 5: regulations for the purposes of sections 4A and 4B require the approval of the Constitution, Legislation and Juridical Committee of the Knesset.
  • Amendment No. 2, section 3, Amendment of the Population Registry Law, 5725-1965, new section 3A (PDF p.3). A person shall not be registered as a Jew by ethnic affiliation or religion if a notification under that Law or another entry in the Registry or a public document indicates that he is not a Jew, so long as the notification, entry or document has not been controverted to the satisfaction of the Chief Registration Officer or so long as declaratory judgment of a competent court or tribunal has not otherwise determined. “Jew” in that Law and in any registration or document under it has the same meaning as in section 4B of the Law of Return. Section 3A does not derogate from a registration effected before its coming into force.
  • 1970 signatories and footnotes (PDF p.3-4). Signed by Golda Meir, Prime Minister and Acting Minister of the Interior, and Shneur Zalman Shazar, President of the State. Passed on 2nd Adar Bet, 5730 (10th March, 1970), published in Sefer Ha-Chukkim No. 586 of the 11th Adar Bet, 5730 (19th March, 1970), p. 34; Bill and Explanatory Note in Hatza’ot Chok No. 866 of 5730, p. 36. Footnotes cite the 1950 law (LSI vol. IV, p. 114) and its 1954 amendment (LSI vol. VIII, p. 144), the Nationality Law, 5712-1952 (Sefer Ha-Chukkim of 5712, p. 146; LSI vol. VI, p. 50), and the Population Registry Law, 5725-1965 (Sefer Ha-Chukkim of 5725, p. 270; LSI vol. XIX, p. 288).

Key passages

  • “Every Jew has the right to come to this country as an oleh” (section 1, PDF p.1)
  • “are also vested in a child and a grandchild of a Jew, the spouse of a Jew, the spouse of a child of a Jew and the spouse of a grandchild of a Jew” (section 4A(a), PDF p.2)
  • “has been a Jew and has voluntarily changed his religion” (section 4A(a), the exception, PDF p.3)
  • “a person who was born of a Jewish mother or has become converted to Judaism and who is not a member of another religion” (section 4B, the definition of “Jew”, PDF p.3)

Evidence the work relies on

A statute and its two amending statutes, not an evidentiary work. Its internal authorities are its own prior texts and the enactments it amends or incorporates by reference: the Law of Return, 5710-1950 (Sefer Ha-Chukkim No. 51 of 5710, p. 159; LSI vol. IV, p. 114), the 1954 amendment (Sefer Ha-Chukkim No. 163 of 5714, p. 174; LSI vol. VIII, p. 144), the Nationality Law, 5712-1952, whose oleh rights section 4A extends to family members, and the Population Registry Law, 5725-1965, into which section 3A inserts the section 4B definition. Each enactment’s passage footnote also cites its Bill and Explanatory Note in Hatza’ot Chok, none of which is reproduced in the file.

Analysis

The file gives the Law in its amended form by accumulation, not as a consolidated text: the reader must apply the 1954 substitutions and added paragraph (3) to the 1950 sections, and the 1970 sections 4A and 4B after section 4, to state the law as it stood after 1970. Three structural points are in the text itself. First, the 1950 law states the right in section 1 without defining “Jew”; the definition arrives only in 1970, in section 4B, and is simultaneously exported to the Population Registry Law. Second, the 1950 exclusions are framed as ministerial satisfaction on three grounds — activity against the Jewish people, danger to public health (with the post-arrival illness carve-out in section 3(b)), and danger to the security of the State — to which 1954 adds a criminal past likely to endanger public welfare. Third, section 4A in 1970 extends the rights beyond Jews as defined in 4B, to children, grandchildren and specified spouses, while expressly excluding a person who has been a Jew and voluntarily changed his religion, and section 4A(c) subjects family claimants to the same restrictions and conditions as a Jew or an oleh. The file contains no statement of purpose, no debate and no commentary; what the Law was for, and how it was applied, are outside this file and are recorded from other sources on Law of Return.

People, organizations, places and events

Law of Return, David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Sharett, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, Golda Meir, Knesset, Israel, Citizenship Law (1952), Population Registry Law, 5725-1965

Concepts

Aliyah, Right of Return

How it relates to other sources

This is the primary text of the Law, not previously held as a source in the wiki. It anchors the accounts already recorded on Law of Return: the 1978 United Nations study quotes sections 1-4 from Badi (ed.), Fundamental Laws of the State of Israel, and concludes Palestinians are completely excluded from the law’s purview — this file confirms the quoted 1950 sections, and adds what that quotation did not include, section 5 and the full 1954 and 1970 amendment texts (The Right of Return of the Palestinian People, PDF p.26, p.29). Stateless Citizenship (2013) describes the law, after amendment, as applying to a Jew’s spouse, children, grandchildren and their spouses — the 4A text in this file is the provision that description rests on, and it states the categories in its own order: a child and a grandchild of a Jew, the spouse of a Jew, the spouse of a child of a Jew and the spouse of a grandchild of a Jew (PDF p.2-3). Rethinking Statehood in Palestine gives the law, passed July 5, 1950, as providing that every Jew has the right to come as an oleh, with no territorial connection required — the passage date and section 1 wording are confirmed here (PDF p.1). The 4B definition and the 3A registration bar are new to the wiki as primary text; no earlier source page in the wiki quotes them in full.

Open questions

  • The file gives no definition of “Jew” in the 1950 law as originally passed; whether any definition applied between 1950 and the insertion of section 4B in 1970 is outside this file.
  • The Bills and Explanatory Notes cited in each passage footnote (Hatza’ot Chok No. 48 of 5710, No. 192 of 5714, No. 866 of 5730) are not in the file, so the enactments’ stated reasons are not in this source.
  • Section 4A(a) excepts “a person who has been a Jew and has voluntarily changed his religion”; the file does not say how that exception interacts with the section 4B condition that a Jew is “not a member of another religion”, and no ruling on either provision is in the file.
  • The second 1950 passage date is printed “5th July. 1950” with a full stop after “July” (PDF p.1), and the translator’s note is printed with a comma before “into Israel” (PDF p.1); both are recorded as printed, not corrected.

Coverage

PDF p.1-4 of 4, read in full.

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