'Israel should no longer grant automatic citizenship to Jews'

From JPost.com, Oct 30, 2007, by HAVIV RETTIG :

Israel should no longer grant automatic citizenship to Jews, Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit said on Tuesday.

"I'd like to see that [the immigrant] is not a criminal, that he's learning Hebrew; that he's here for five years before getting citizenship," he said.

Sheetrit was speaking to the Jewish Agency Board of Governors meeting in Jerusalem. He also called for more careful filtering of who is allowed to enter the country.

"Don't go finding me any lost tribes because I won't let them in any more," he declared. "We have enough problems in Israel. Let them go to America."

Sheetrit told the delegates from around the world that "we have to focus on absorption" of the olim already in Israel, "Whose lives are miserable."

Sheetrit's remarks did not reflect the views of the Jewish Agency, said Jewish Agency Board of Governors Chairman Richie Pearlstone.