88-year-old Mariam and two of her unmarried daughters were allowed to enter Israel under the Law of Return. But Miriam's youngest daughter Gilda, who is in her 50s, and Gilda’s Muslim husband, Khaled; and his three children were not allowed entry, despite the terrible civil war they had fled, because Khaled and his children are muslim and Gilda converted to marry him.
The Jewish Chronicle has a long exclusive about a Syrian-American Jew, Moti Kahana, who saved the last Jewish family living in Aleppo. His agents got the Halabi family to Turkey where they were put up in a safe house paid for by Kahana. The Jewish Agency was contacted. It came and evaluated the family, checked available documents, and allowed most – but not all – of them to come to Israel under the Law of Return.
88-year-old Mariam and two of her unmarried daughters were allowed to enter Israel under the Law of Return. But Miriam's youngest daughter Gilda, who is in her 50s, and Gilda’s Muslim husband, Khaled; and his three children were not allowed entry, despite the terrible civil war they had fled.
Gilda married Khaled three years ago in a Muslim ceremony for which she converted to Islam. And because of that conversion, Israel refused her entry as a Jew, and refused to allow her husband and his three children to enter at all.
Here's an excerpt from The JC's report:
…But the story did not have the ending Mr [Moti] Kahana [the Syrian-American Jewish businessman] had hoped for.
In Turkey, he informed the Jewish Agency (JA) of the escape in order to secure safe haven for the whole family in Israel. According to Mr Kahana, ten days after the family arrived in Istanbul the JA told him they would handle the situation from now on. “I was financing the house and the food until the Israelis took it over. I thought: ‘That’s it!’”
For one month, JA — or “Sochnut” — officials visited the family. They looked at marriage certificates and asked questions to verify the Halabis' identity.
Mariam and Sara, who have never married, were given safe haven in Israel, and they now live in Ashkelon. But for Gilda and her family, things took a turn for the worse.
JA officials — who are charged with verifying a person’s religious identity — decided that Gilda had converted to Islam to marry Khaled around three years ago. They said she could not make aliyah under the law of return.
“The Sochnut took the 88-year-old elderly woman and her non-married daughters to Israel, and they left the one who married a Muslim guy in Turkey,” says Mr Kahana.
“The lease on the house I was renting for them expired. They had no money, no food, they had nothing in Turkey."
Frightened, Gilda and her husband felt they had no choice but to return to Syria — where they remain. “By the time I got her on the phone, she was already in Syria,” he added. “They did not want to be in a refugee camp.
“I am so frustrated with the Sochnut. They said she is not Jewish enough for us. The Israelis have been trying to hide this story. They screwed up.”
He added: “I help Muslims and Jews — I help humanity. Of course I get really excited when I save a Jew, my own people, but I will still save a Muslim kid.”
Mr Kahana is trying to convince Gilda and her family to leave Syria again. He claims that the JA offered to reimburse him for the escape of Mariam and Sara, but not Gilda and her family. “I told the Jewish Agency: ‘You can go f*** yourself.”
JA official Ariel Di Porto stood by the decision. She said: “Gilda is not Jewish any more because she married a Muslim and converted to Islam. The law of return in Israel says that if she converted, it is not halachah, she cannot make aliyah.” She added that the Ministry of Interior was responsible for the decision.…
The Jewish Agency responded to this by claiming it had only followed the law, which says that a Jw who has converted to another religion is no longer Jewish as far as the Law of Return is concerned.
It also claimed it was Israel's Interior Ministry that banned Gilda and her family, and said that instead of going back to Syria, Gilda had the option of entering Israel on a tourist visa and where she could then 'sort out' her status.
In other words, the Jewish Agency sees nothing wrong with what it did, despite the family being trapped in one of the most vicious civil wars in recent memory and being within the close reach of ISIS.
And if that doesn't make you nauseous, if that doesn't revolt you, likely nothing Israel does, no matter how wrong, no matter how awful, ever will.
Read The JC's whole report here.
[Hat Tip: Joel Katz.]