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| Europe | ||
| Spain Approves Citizenship Path for Sephardic Jews | ||
| 2015-06-12 | ||
| MADRID -- Seeking to redress one of the darkest chapters of Spain's history, the Spanish Parliament on Thursday approved a long-awaited law devised to open the way for citizenship for thousands of Sephardic Jews whose ancestors were expelled in 1492. "This law says a lot about what we were in the past, what we are today and what we want to continue to be in the future -- an open, diverse and tolerant Spain," Rafael CatalĂĄ, the Spanish justice minister, told lawmakers on Thursday. The law is set to come into force in October, and may help turn what has until now been a trickle of successful applications into a flood. But just how many Sephardic Jews will be able to get a Spanish passport is unclear. The new law is intended to give Spanish citizenship to any person whose Sephardic origins can be certified. It also removes any obligation for applicants to renounce their current citizenship. The Sephardic citizenship law, however, has also prompted some soul-searching about why similar rules should not be extended to the descendants of the Muslim Moors who were also expelled in the late 15th century. Why should similar rules NOT be extended to Muslim descendants? Maybe because they took Iberia from the Iberians who fought for centuries to take it back, history quite different from the Sephardim. Among other things, national sovereignty implies choosing who belongs - and who doesn't. National sovereignty is a very un-PC idea, modern Euros must cringe at the thought they might have to carry it out on their own behalf.
Earlier this year the Spanish government announced its intention of extending citizenship to descendants of Sephardic Jews expelled in 1492. Shortly thereafter 5,000 Turkish Jews — roughly a third of the community — applied for dual citizenship, potentially opening the doors to life in Europe, according to a recent Financial Times report.
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| Posted by:Anguper Hupomosing9418 |
| #6 I'm pretty sure the plan is for those clever Jews to do for Spain's economy what they did for Holland and the Ottoman empire when they went the other way. So I wanna go tong on tulips? |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2015-06-12 15:57 |
| #5 THIS ROBERT HEINLEIN QUOTE IS WORTH REPEATING ONE MORE TIME: Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. This is known as “bad luck.” |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2015-06-12 15:25 |
| #4 I'm pretty sure the plan is for those clever Jews to do for Spain's economy what they did for Holland and the Ottoman empire when they went the other way. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2015-06-12 11:51 |
| #3 Home is any place where, when you show up, they have to let you in. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2015-06-12 11:50 |
| #2 Them joooooos made out fine wandering unemployed for 40 years depending on handouts from above. They'll be fine. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2015-06-12 10:28 |
| #1 "Yes, move to Spain, home of you ancestors, where you too can experience the delights of 30% unemployment." |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2015-06-12 07:31 |