Consequent to the Holocaust, Israel developed a tradition in treating non-Jews differently from how it behaved toward Jewish people. It appears that Jews were influenced by the nationalist waves that dominated the European landscape during the second half of the twentieth century (Levy and Weiss 7). The Law of Return did not succeed in doing one of the main things it was expected to-that of increasing the Jewish population in Israel. Instead, it can be said that it is actually responsible for damaging nationalism in Israel through the fact that it influenced numerous non-Jewish individuals in wanting to gain Israelite citizenship. A great deal of immigrants who chose to reside in Israel "were not Jews, but had Jewish relatives that enabled them to immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return" (Levy and Weiss 43). The Law of Return makes it obvious that discrimination based on racial differences is still strong and that it can...
"To Tell the Truth: Israel's Unthinkable Debate," The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs Feb. 1995Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
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