AL-QUDS (Dispatches) – Russia’s decision to shut down an agency that processes the immigration of Jews to the Israeli-occupied territories would be a “serious event” impacting bilateral ties, Zionist prime minister Yair Lapid said Sunday.
A Moscow court said last week that the justice ministry had requested the “dissolution” of the Jewish Agency because of legal violations, and set a hearing for July 28.
Some experts interpreted that as a warning shot from the Kremlin toward Lapid, who has taken a tougher rhetorical line over the Ukraine conflict than the Zionist regime’s former premier Naftali Bennett, who stepped aside on July 1.
Lapid told a meeting of senior officials Sunday that “closing the Jewish Agency offices would be a serious event that would affect relations,” a statement said.
He also ordered that a “legal delegation be prepared to depart for Moscow as soon as the Russian approval for talks is received and to make every effort to exhaust the legal dialogue,” on top of diplomatic efforts to ease the dispute.
The Jewish Agency, established in 1929, has played a key role in filling the occupied Palestinian lands with Zionist immigrants.
It began working in Russia in 1989, two years before the end of the Soviet Union, after which hundreds of thousands of Zionists from all over the USSR left for the occupied territories.
More than a million Zionists on occupied lands today are originally from the Soviet Union.
Closing the agency’s Russian branch would not stop Russian Jews from moving to the territories — only a full Russian border closure could achieve that — but it could slow down the process.
Immediately following the February 24 conflict in Ukraine, Lapid as foreign minister accused Russia of violating the “world order,” while Bennett stressed the regime’s strong relations with both sides, withheld direct criticism of the Russian operation and subsequently tried to play a role of mediator between Kiev and Moscow.
Lapid has renewed his criticism of Russia since becoming prime minister, but has still tried to walk a cautious line in order to preserve ties with Moscow, which are seen as crucial to preserving the regime’s ability to carry out air strikes in Syria where Russian forces are present.