Obtaining a darkon – an Israeli passport – is the dream and goal of many returnees, as it opens the door to 161 countries around the world. However, Israel will soon stop issuing it to new citizens. And this is only the beginning of actions to toughen repatriations. Alexey Kovalenko, managing partner at Israeli law firm Kovalenko and Partners, told Russian media why this happened and what restrictions should be expected for returnees in the future.
The Israeli government has gone so far as to threaten the new returnees with what they have been threatening for several months now. On the night of May 30, the Knesset passed a bill in its first reading that establishes new rules for obtaining an Israeli passport – a darkon.
Darkon is a fully-fledged Israeli passport. It began to be issued immediately after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. At first it was called a “travel document”, but since 1953 the darkon has become a real passport.
Ali Haider/EPA/TASS
Since 1964, for 53 years, it was issued only one year after obtaining citizenship. And in 2017, the Knesset passed a resolution allowing new immigrants to get a passport for five years immediately after acquiring citizenship, without having to wait a year.
It had an unimaginable effect on the Russians. After all, thanks to the diplomatic efforts of Israel, the document allows visa-free entry to 161 countries of the world. And this is how the darkon is a valuable document that many returnees want to receive … and leave immediately for another country.
Previously, however, Russians preferred to return with him, and then quietly travel around the world. But now more and more people are moving to Dubai. After all, unlike a Russian passport with a darkon, you can easily do business there and buy real estate there. And this is important, because the Arabs are also afraid of sanctions.
Hanay/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
However, everything started to change four years after the liberalization of the legislation. In 2021, Interior Minister Aryeh Deri proposed tightening the rules, and darkon began to be issued not for five years, but for just one year. Only if a person lives in Israel 75% of the days of the year does he have the right to extend it for another five years.
My clients have already met him, who received a darkon at the beginning of last year and immediately left for Dubai, where companies were registered there, opened bank accounts. A year later, the passport has turned into an empty sheet of paper, and now it is very difficult and expensive to renew it.
Decisions are made individually in case of significant financial contribution to the life of Israel. This was the case until 2017 – the darkon was immediately issued only to those who, for example, donated large sums to the Yad Vashem museum, and only if one of the ministers requested it .
Now everything comes back to the starting point – it will be possible to get a darkon only after one year of residence in the country.
The government has therefore decided to fight against the repatriation of passports. Lawmakers want to prevent people from getting passports who don’t intend to live in Israel. Indeed, according to statistics, even in 2022, 41% of returnees from Russia, having received passports, returned to their homeland. As the government has argued, people receive various benefits and preferences as Israeli citizens and then leave, causing damage to the state, both financially and in terms of image. They started to scare the abolition of darkon for a long time, but only now this issue has finally been clarified.
The law only passed its first reading, but it will soon reach the third. If the majority of the population is unhappy with the new government’s judicial reform, ready to take to the streets and seek to put it on hold, then society as a whole is on board with action against the new returnees.
Nir Alon/Zuma/TASS
Always the one who arrived a little earlier already despises the one who “came in large numbers” later. In addition, due to the influx of emigrants, Israelis felt the violation of their rights – the Interior Ministry could not cope with the load, and even people born in Israel waited six months the issuance of a passport.
However, if you need a passport primarily to enter Europe freely, there is a way out. As in the old joke about the Jew and the two synagogues he built on a desert island so he could pray in one and “lose his footing” in the other, Israelis have two passports with which they can travel abroad.
Instead of a darkon, they will now give a loess pass – the so-called “travel document”. With it, you can enter 54 countries without a visa, including most European countries. The disadvantages of the loess pass lie in its original purpose – this document was invented for residents of Israel who do not have citizenship, but have a residence permit. Such are, for example, many Arabs in East Jerusalem, or Druze in the Dutch heights, who still do not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over them.
That is why in other countries they cannot perceive the loess pass as a document by which you can open businesses or buy real estate. No one can figure out if the person presenting this passport is an Israeli citizen, and they prefer not to find out.
Now I only deal with several clients whose darkon turned into a pumpkin, and they have already refused Russian citizenship. They live in Europe, they need a darkon to be able to carry out financial activities as citizens of Israel. But according to the law, they do not have such an opportunity, because they have not lived in this country for most of the year. But if at the same time a person lives, for example, in London, then in a year he has to leave to get a visa. Great Britain is not on the list of countries you can enter without a visa from Loesse Pass.
We have warned against the ban on issuing darkon for new citizens since January this year. And, by the way, it should be remembered that another bill is the next one, which will abolish the acquisition of citizenship by the grandchildren of Jews. And this will already be a more serious restriction and an attack on the law of return. Since it is still possible to enter under the old rules, you should do so as soon as possible.
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