Reply To: Move to Eretz Yisroel Without Accepting Citizenship

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#943685

I’m quite sure you can.

Immigrants from many European countries do it as a matter of principle, almost. The thing is, several European countries (including, I believe, The Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland) have laws forbidding dual citizenship.

If I, upon immigrating to Israel, would have accepted Israeli citizenship, I would immediately and automatically have lost my Dutch citizenship (the Israeli authorities would notify the Dutch authorities per agreement between them).

Therefore, Israel has come up with a way to allow people from these countries to immigrate without having to give up their European citizenship. We get a ‘teudat zehut’ with permanent resident status, we get all rights and duties of a citizen, except: 1) we are not citizens; 2) we therefore don’t have an Israeli passport; 3) we can’t vote for the Knesset, and if I remember correctly, we cannot be elected to the Knesset and cannot serve as army officers or as judges.

The procedure is called by the name of the document you get to confirm it: “ARLI” standing for

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I think… might be wrong. It’s “Confirmation of non-acquisition of Israeli citizenship”.

If a Dutch / German / Swiss citizen does NOT get this ARLI document upon registering as ‘oleh chadash’ at Misrad HaPnim (when you get the Teudat Zehut) – or it might have been at Natbag, or at Misrad HaKlita; I don’t remember, it was so long ago – they would automatically lose their European citizenship.

Of the tens of Dutch immigrants I have met in Israel, I know none (0,0), even the dati leumim, who accepted Israeli nationality and gave up their Dutch nationality. It just doesn’t provide you with any benefits and you stand to lose much more than you gain.

Now as for you… The question is whether Israel allows anyone to do this, get a regular Teudat Zehut while not acquiring citizenship with an ARLI declaration. For that, you’ll need to approach, I suppose, either or multiple of: 1) the Jewish Agency, 2) the Israeli embassy, 3) Misrad HaPnim, 4) Misrad HaKlita.