Israeli media: Great tension between Russia and Israel
Israeli media spoke of “great tension between Russia and Israel,” against the background of reports from Moscow that the Jewish Agency had stopped work, noting that this matter might be related to “Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s statement regarding the war in Ukraine”.
Relations between Israel and Russia have been tensing in recent months, as the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the Israeli ambassador to Russia, Alex Ben-Zvi, against the background of a statement by Yair Lapid when he was the foreign minister of the occupation last April, “in which he condemned Russia’s practices in Ukraine”, he described them as “war crimes”.
Last Thursday, Israeli media reported that Israel considers stopping the Jewish Agency’s work in Russia as a “political punishment”.
“Ostensibly, Russia wants to stop the work of the Jewish Agency, and there is talk of a technical bureaucratic matter, but in Israel they say that it is a political punishment,” said Moriah Wahlberg, political affairs correspondent for Channel 13.
Wahlberg added that “Israel tried to keep the matter on a low fire, and not create a diplomatic crisis, but that did not work”.
The Federation of Jewish Diaspora in Russia indicated that the decision to “liquid the Jewish Agency was a setback in relations”.
Channel 13 indicated that “they in Israel understand that the issue of the Jewish Agency can very quickly develop into a diplomatic crisis with Russia.
In turn, Kan reported that “the issue of the Jewish Agency is a kind of yellow card, not only because of the war in Ukraine, but also because of the Israeli operations in Syria”.
The Israeli government announced that “a delegation from the Prime Minister and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Immigration and the Judiciary will be sent, next week, to Moscow, to ensure the continuation of the work of the Jewish Agency, after the Russian Ministry of Justice demanded its closure”.
The Russian Ministry of Justice demanded the termination of the work of the “Sakhnot” Agency (the Jewish Agency) in Russia, which is concerned with “facilitating the immigration of Jews to occupied Palestine”.
The Ministry referred the “Jewish Agency” file to the competent judiciary, calling for its liquidation.
Earlier, Israeli media reported Israeli concerns about stopping the activities of the Jewish Agency in the field of Jewish immigration to Israel, and demanded clarifications from Russia regarding the judicial procedures against the agency.
A few days ago, the Israeli media reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin had signed a new Russian law to “paralyze Jewish and Israeli organizations” in Russia.
The court in Moscow had received an administrative lawsuit from the main department of the Russian Ministry of Justice regarding the “liquidation and exclusion of the Jewish organization from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities of the Independent Non-Profit Organization,” so that the judge set the hearing in this lawsuit on July 28.
In response to a question by the Russian “Interfax” agency, the court explained that “the lawsuit of the Ministry of Justice relates to the agency’s violation of Russian law in the context of its activities”.
It is noteworthy that the international organization, “The Jewish Agency of Israel” (Sakhnot), is an organization concerned with ensuring relations between Jews around the world and issues of Jewish immigration to the occupied Palestinian territories.
Founded in 1929, representative offices of the Jewish Agency have been operating in Russia since 1989.