‘Who Is a Jew’ Bill fails Knesset preliminary vote
The Knesset on Wednesday rejected a controversial bill seeking to redefine who may be registered as Jewish in Israel’s population registry, dealing a blow to an initiative backed primarily by Orthodox (Haredi) lawmakers.
MK Avi Maoz in the Knesset plenum in Jerusalem on Apr 3, 2024. Photo by Yoav Dudkevitch/TPS
The proposal, known as the “Who is a Jew” bill and sponsored by MK Avi Maoz of the far-right Noam party, was defeated in a preliminary reading by a vote of 60 against and 15 in favour. Support for the bill came almost exclusively from the Haredi Shas and United Torah Judaism factions. Likud lawmakers voted against the measure, while members of the Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit parties were absent from the plenum.
The bill aimed to stipulate that registration as a Jew in official population records would be based solely on conversions recognised by Israel’s state rabbinical courts, effectively excluding Reform and Conservative conversions from recognition for civil registration purposes.
Maoz introduced the legislation in response to a 2021 High Court of Justice ruling that required the state to recognise non-Orthodox conversions performed in Israel for the purpose of immigration under the Law of Return. That law defines a Jew as someone “born to a Jewish mother or who converted, and is not a member of another religion.” The court ruled that the wording obligates the state to recognise non-Orthodox conversions as well.
Rather than amending the politically sensitive Law of Return, Maoz sought to bypass the ruling by changing the Population Registry Law. The bill also proposed restoring the nationality clause to Israeli identity cards.
Following the vote, Maoz criticised coalition partners who declined to support the measure, singling out National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. “Just a month ago, Ben-Gvir declared publicly, ‘We need to pass the Who is a Jew bill,’” Maoz said.
The Law of Return is an Israeli law giving any Jew the right to live in Israel and obtain Israeli citizenship. Unanimously passed by the Knesset in 1950, the law did not define who is a Jew for purposes of immigration.
In 1970, the last time the Law of Return was amended, the Knesset extended immigration rights to people with one Jewish grandparent. It also offered the same rights to the immigrant’s spouse and children, regardless of whether those individuals would be considered Jewish under religious law.
