Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Allegiance? It's Already Part of the Law of the Land

MK Avigdor Lieberman (for whom I did not vote) has been the object of a political/media campaign to label him as a fascist.

Why?

Because his campaign slogan was "without allegiance, no citzenship".




Now, whether or not you feel comfortable with that type of rhetoric or with Lieberman as a leader, what I found amazing is that no one pointed out that all Lieberman was relating to was the law of the land.

The law?

Yes.

The one passed by the Knesset on April 1, 1952) and amended on March 3, 1958, July 8, 1958 and May 17, 1971 meaning that it wasn't a secreted away piece of obtuse legislation.

NATIONALITY LAW, 5712-1952*

PART ONE: ACQUISITION OF NATIONALITY

Preliminary

There shall be no Israel nationality save under this Law...

PART TWO: LOSS OF NATIONALITY

Revocation of Naturalisation.

11.
(a) Where a person, having acquired Israeli nationality by naturalisation -
(1) has done so on the basis of false particulars; or
(2) has been abroad for seven consecutive years and has no effective connection with Israel, and has failed to prove that his effective connection with Israel was severed otherwise than by his own volition; or
(3) has committed an act of disloyalty towards the State of Israel, a District Court may, upon the application of the Minister of the Interior, revoke such person's naturalisation.


The concept of disavowing citizenship exists. Now we just have quibble about to whom it applies or doesn't and what an act of disloyalty is.

So, since we do have a mechanism (actually quite undefined and when I tried to work on it as Parliamentary Aide to MK Geula Cohen I got nowhere fast), Lieberman was simply engaged in working with the law of the land.

Can you, though, imagine us here trying to get schoolchildren do something fascist like pledging allegaince to the flag every morning at the beginning of classes?


---------------

*
Passed by the Knesset on the 6th Nisan, 5712 (Ist April, 1952). and published in Sefer Ha-Chukkim No. 95 of the 13th Nisan, 5712 (8th April, 1952), P. 146; the Bill was published in Hatza'ot Chok No. 93 of the 22nd Cheshvan, 5712 (21st November, 1951), p. 22.

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