Should recognition of the state of Israel be a requirement for naturalisation?
The German state of Saxony-Anhalt is set to make recognition of the state of Israel a requirement for becoming a German citizen. However, Peter Rodrigues, Emeritus Professor of Immigration Law, has told Dutch daily newspaper Nederlands Dagblad that introducing a similar measure in the Netherlands would violate people’s ‘freedom of political opinion’.
The newspaper explains that by imposing this measure, the German federal state aims to curb anti-Semitism. The FDP, Germany's governing party, says it wants to ‘make anti-Semitism legal grounds for rejecting passport applications’ across the entire country. In the Netherlands, the Reformed Political Party (SGP) says it supports the measure and wants to explore ‘a similar proposal’.
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Read the full article here (in Dutch) (€).
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