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New German citizens required to affirm Israel's right to exist (www.middleeasteye.net)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Applicants for German citizenship will be required to explicitly affirm Israel's right to exist under a new citizenship law which came into effect on Tuesday.

The new law shortened the number of years that a person must have lived in Germany in order to obtain a passport, from eight to five years. It will also allow first-generation migrants to be dual citizens.

As part of the shake-up, new questions were added to the country's citizenship test, including about Judaism and Israel's right to exist.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

What kinda fascist, authoritarian bullshit is this? I'm seriously considering giving up my German citizenship (I also hold citizenship in another EU country that recognizes Palestine) because of this. Although I would regularly have to go to the consulate for administrative tasks like renewing my ID, it would be worth it.

Edit: I am a firm supporter of a two-state solution, but one of the two states is not interested in that whatsoever. It is the exact state that is ruled by an antidemocratic, fascist, ethno-supremacist government, which is constantly murdering innocent civilians. Israel has a right to the 1947 territory set by the UN. But not a single square centimeter more than that.

So by definition, no, I don't recognize the current form of the Israeli state, which claims the entire Palestinian territory.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The question doesn't ask if you support the current state of Israel though.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Maybe the last sentence is hard to see because it's under the picture, but I clearly wrote:

So by definition, no, I don’t recognize the current form of the Israeli state, which claims the entire Palestinian territory.

I explained the reasoning behind this stance in my previous comment.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I specifically responded to your last sentence. If you are OK with for example Israel in the UN recognised borders of 1947, then you don't deny the right of the state of Israel to exist, which is all that is being asked for.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 4 months ago

The current Israeli state defines itself as holding all of the territory. I do not recognize that state. The current form of the Israeli state is not suitable for a peaceful solution to the problems in the region. I don't think that the idea of an Israeli state should be completely abolished, but it must not try to occupy more territory than was planned by the UN in 1947. Until then, I can't take these terrorists seriously.

I actually read the new law, and it doesn't seem that bad. I haven't found a single question that directly requires an applicant to recognize the state of Israel, but there are some questions that involve Israel and kinda require that someone at least acknowledges the existence of Israel, in order to answer them.