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Why would we need a foreign passport?
Photo: Ata Awisat

Passport of illusions

Despite Avraham Burg's call, foreign passport of little use to Israelis

Everyone is entitled to their own views, desires, sentiments and conscience. Yet in the latter point I wouldn't want to be Avraham Burg. Because if he does indeed have a conscience he should be greatly perturbed by the things he wrote and said about Israel, Zionism and Judaism.

 

Burg, who was the former head of the Jewish Agency, leader of the World Zionist Federation and speaker of the Knesset – Israel's parliament – is suggesting that every Israeli should take his cue and obtain a foreign passport.

 

Truthfully, for years now there has been an inexplicable urge among many Israelis to obtain a foreign passport. At first it was - woe is me – a German passport. Then came the turn of the French passport. Nowadays, Israelis are even "pursuing" a Polish or Romanian passport, because these countries have also become members of the European Union.

 

I said an "inexplicable urge," because that foreign passport gives no added value. Except, perhaps, a shorter wait in line for passport control at certain airports (and with the current reality this is not necessarily the case at many airports.)

 

A foreign passport doesn't even pave the way for easier access into other countries (assuming you are not planning a trip to Damascus or Tehran.) Firstly, Israelis can enter most countries without a visa. Secondly, a European passport doesn't free Israeli tourists of the need for a visa to Uncle Sam's country.

 

Europeans prefer 'authentic' citizens

So why do I (or you) need a foreign passport as recommended by Avraham Burg? "For the children," that's what I am told here and there when posing this question to an acquaintance. Namely, they are concerned about Israel's future and believe that a foreign passport, Romanian, Slovakian or Hungarian, would "save" their children in the event that Israel is eliminated.

 

But this is an illusion: The ostensible "mother countries" will find a way not to take in their citizens from the "colony." The British have already demonstrated how this is done.

 

As to the possibility of working in countries of the European Union, the entire matter of "free" labor is nothing more than a theory. Firstly, there are many countries in Europe that are in the midst of a severe economic crisis with high unemployment levels.

 

Secondly, the various countries don't make it any easier for their "kin" from beyond their borders and obviously prefer their own "authentic" citizens. Ask Polish citizens, for example, who are trying to move to Germany.

 

And now permit me to paraphrase a well known, age-old Latin saying: "What is permitted to the ox is not permitted to Jupiter." Namely, even if I am able to accept – but in no way able to comprehend and certainly not to justify – an ordinary Israeli's attitude towards a foreign passport, I cannot in any way accept this from Avraham Burg.

 

The man who was Israel's number two citizen and vice president cannot possess a foreign passport, and he must certainly not call on others to follow suit.  

 


פרסום ראשון: 06.23.07, 23:40
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