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.

  • poVoqM
    link
    fedilink
    English
    187 days ago

    It is not even closely the same by any definition.

    • Zagorath
      link
      fedilink
      English
      87 days ago

      by any definition

      The IHRA’s definition does, so you can’t say “any”.

      That said, the IHRA definition was pretty specifically created to be zionist and a shield for Israel, and should be rejected on those grounds.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      2
      edit-2
      7 days ago

      The definition used by German authorities subsumes antizionism, i.e. denying Israel’s right to exist as a special form of antisemitism.

      • poVoqM
        link
        fedilink
        English
        107 days ago

        It is quite reductive to say anti-zionism is just denying the right of Israel to exist. Yes, the state of Israel is a deeply zionist project but you can accept the reality of this state existing and still be opposed to the idea of zionism in general.

        I am opposed to the idea of colonialism in general but still accept the existence of states with a colonial history.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          37 days ago

          That’s a good point. I’ve always thought antizionism and denying Israel’s right to exist where somehow identical.