Among the many word-of-mouth jokes among Soviet citizens in the Soviet era, one of the most popular was the one that described the desire of citizens to flee the country for a better life abroad.
In a joke, Soviet leader Brezhnev asks Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin: "How many Jews do we have in the USSR?"
"3-4 million," Kosygin replies.
"And if we open the gates, how many of them will leave?".
Prime Minister responds: "10-15 million".
Brezhnev and Kosygin died in the early 1980s and did not get to see their country collapse, its gates open, and millions leave it everywhere.
Although the Jews had a place to go, their homeland in the Land of Israel was always waiting for them, but what about others?
Mila Moskowitz's new book, formerly a senior Interior Ministry official, tells the story of those who envied the Jews of the USSR and sought every loophole to take advantage of Israel's generosity and weakness, and to settle in it fraudulently. The book was published in Russian, , And the detailed passages in it will be in the public domain, the forearms will be shaken.
Moskowitz, 73, who immigrated to Israel in 1990, began working for the Interior Ministry in 1995.
She was first stationed at the Netanya branch, and due to her background and command of the Russian language very quickly developed expertise in examining documents originating in the USSR. A winding family, drained to her.
In 1999, Moskowitz moved to the Jerusalem office and joined a one-of-a-kind team.
She and two other facts, Russian-speaking like her, have already dealt with all the problematic cases from all over the country.
The files came from various branches, but most of them had one thing in common: an attempt to obtain immigrant status and settle in Israel based on forged documents.
"We were flooded with dozens of cases that were mainly fraudulent," Moskowitz recalls of the reality that accompanied her from then until her retirement, "what was not there: real documents bought from Jews to be used by others under a borrowed identity, forged and original certificates "Plots and inventions as the developed imagination of crooks who recognized the weakness of the State of Israel and its bureaucratic apparatus."
Came up with the passport of the deceased
Moskowitzi's book was indeed read as a serious indictment against the indifference, abandonment and helplessness of the Israeli establishment, and especially of the Ministry of the Interior.
It is not surprising that the crooks' attempt to get rich at the expense of the State of Israel, there have always been and always will be crooks.
But the lack of decisive action on the part of state bodies towards those crooks does not give Moskowitz any rest, especially considering that the cases to which she has been exposed during her years of work only reveal a tap of the problem.
"Almost all cases of fraud were discovered by chance, without there being an initiated investigation by a government official or an enforcement body," Moskowitz explains.
"After we came up with a forgery, for example after the documents were checked at our request in a forensic laboratory, or following a query sent to the competent authorities in the crook's country of birth, we would invite the person carrying the forged certificate to a hearing. During the hearing some of them insisted and got angry, until we presented them with the evidence. Others immediately admitted and were willing to transcribe the entire scam story, down to the last detail. But the worst of all is that even in such cases, many of them evaded responsibility and continued to enjoy the fruits of the scam. "
Some of the stories revealed are reminiscent of plots that seem to have been taken from thrillers and may arouse pity for the imposters. Such is the example of the story of Sergei Ivanovsky, a Russian businessman born in Moscow. At a hearing before Moskowitz, he interpreted the ease of obtaining Israeli citizenship through a lie. "I was forced to leave Russia urgently due to the threat to my life and family life by senior Russian security officials, who boycotted my business in an attempt to retaliate against me for exposing corruption," Ivanovsky wrote in an explanation of his actions. "The only thing offered to me to leave Russia involved the use of a complete set of documents in the name of Mikhail Sokolovsky, born in 1976, for the purpose of immigrating to Israel. Later it turned out that this man died in 1979."
Ivanovsky came to Israel as a tourist in 2013, and here he asked to register as an immigrant. The set of documents of the dead Sokolowski did the job - and the tourist became an Israeli citizen, single as he puts it. He later changed his name and last name, and after receiving a passport with the new names, he applied to the US embassy for a visa to enter America. This, of course, was a mistake: Ivanovsky did not take into account that unlike Israelis, Americans are not suckers. Visas at the US Embassy in Israel recognized that the same person had previously applied for an American visa from the Moscow embassy, only then did he introduce himself as Sergei Ivanovsky, a Russian citizen.
The Americans transferred the suspicion to the Israel Police, and in a clear deal with him, Ivanovsky admitted to immigrating to Israel under a stolen identity, without having any connection to a Jewish people.
The confession did not prevent his family members - his wife and three children - from coming to Israel and asking to become citizens.
Even when their application was denied, Ivanovsky did not give up and insisted that he be allowed to leave Israel with an Israeli passport in the name of Mikhail Sokolovsky, a passport he received fraudulently.
"In this case, in a discussion with the participation of senior Interior Ministry officials, it was decided that it would be easiest to let this impostor and his family leave Israel, and immediately afterwards revoke his Israeli citizenship," explains Moskowitz. "His false request was supported by the testimony of someone who introduced herself as his 'sister', a citizen of Israel. Without her testimony and without her documents, he would not have been recognized as entitled to the Law of Return. Do you think that after the impersonation was revealed?
The fictitious family
The confession of Natalia, a resident of Ukraine, written by her at the Israeli consulate in Kiev in May 2016, is no less astonishing. That same year, Natalia, who, unlike Ivanovsky, was actually a Jew, submitted her documents to the consulate to immigrate to Israel, but the examination revealed that she had already immigrated to Israel in 1998. And not only her. When in 2015 one of Natalia's children applied to the consulate with a similar request, it became clear that she too had already immigrated to Israel with her husband, and in 2000 another daughter of Natalia followed her.
complicated? Not so, if you read the confession. It turns out that in 1998 Natalia saw an ad in a Ukrainian newspaper of a man who wanted to arrange a fictitious marriage with a Jewish woman, for a fee, of course. She responded to the ad, met Nikolai who had arranged for her a fictitious husband, and next to him four other fake family members who had taken for themselves the identities of Natalia's real children. The whole group immigrated to Israel, and all received the coveted citizenship of the Jewish state. Fate wanted it, and Natalia, the only Jew in the group, returned to Ukraine only six months later, and already on her landing, Nikolai took her Israeli identity card from her, apparently to bring more and more imposters through it. Her fake family members - the fictitious husband, the fictitious daughter, the fictitious son and his wife - enjoyed Israel, took full advantage of the generous absorption basket and the benefits granted to the immigrants.
"When the scam from 1998 was discovered by chance, just because Natalia and her real children wanted to immigrate to Israel 17 years later, I asked to initiate the revocation of the impersonators' citizenship, but it was not done," said Malina Moskowitz. "But everyone is left with the citizenship that has fallen to some of them by deception."
Crooks, by the way, came not only from the territories of the former USSR. Moskowitz recalls the affair of two cousins from Mexico. As with perfect timing, they sought to bring to Israel the biological fathers of their children, which aroused justified suspicion in the Ministry of the Interior.
An examination by Moskowitz revealed that each of the immigrants lives in Israel at a separate address from the person who was presumed to be her husband.
At a hearing held for them, the Mexican telenovela was fully revealed: back in Mexico, future immigrants were offered to temporarily separate from their real husbands and immigrate to Israel accompanied by fictitious husbands, young men desperately looking for any way to leave their country and willing to pay.
If they had waited and not hurried to initiate the real owners' bringing to Israel, the deception would never have been sought.
"Do not worry, the citizens' citizenship was not revoked, and they did not carry any punishment, although the act and motive are as clear as the sun, as in many other stories," says Moskowitz, "they moved their cases from place to place, and made no decision."
Immigrants from the USSR. Those photographed have nothing to do with what is said in the article, Photo: Moshe Shai
Everyone removed responsibility
The collection of episodes presented in Moskowitz's book leaves the reader feeling bad, and she really does not want to soften it. "At the time, alongside the Ministry of the Interior, there was a committee for revocation of citizenship, which included lawyers and public figures," Moskowitz clarifies bitterly. "The imposters and crooks, they stayed in Israel, filed more and more applications for temporary status. In other cases, the committee itself found reasons why they could be allowed to stay. Either way, these proceedings take years, they are cumbersome, and the crooks have taken advantage of the procrastination."
What is the scope of the phenomenon of using forged documents for obtaining Israeli citizenship in violation of the law?
"I can only testify to cases that were discovered and came to our care - such were several hundred a year. In dozens of cases a year the system managed to revoke the citizenship given fraudulently. In practice, the dimensions are larger, because only cases are discovered "People turn to the rabbinate to marry Jews in Israel, or when they want to bring in more relatives. The Ministry of the Interior is not an investigative body, and it does not initiate inspections, but the other bodies involved do not."
The Ministry of the Interior is portrayed in your book as a reluctant and helpless ministry, as a body that seeks to withdraw its hands from any responsibility.
"True. Usually at the end of my examination, whether the crooks admitted or not, I would transfer the case to the director of the Visa Department and the Legal Bureau. In many cases the case was 'lying' idle for years because no one wanted to make a decision. The abolition of citizenship ceased to exist, because some of its members left, and no new members were appointed in their place, and it does not exist to this day. The answer I received was 'No, we will not bring any more people, because this is an explosive political issue.' "The face is full of bags, and no one is taking care of them. I was in the eyes of other employees like Don Quixote, and now there are no Don Quixotes left."
Your work as a gatekeeper has created for you in some circles the image of a "difficult woman" and not of Don Quixote.
"I am not impressed by the treatment of those whose fraud I have exposed. But it should be remembered that there were many others - innocent victims of the acts of fraud (for example, minor children of those who came up with forged documents, Jews whose identity was stolen) or people harmed by wrongful Ministry of Interior treatment. And always, at every hour, they found in me an attentive ear, humane and professional care.I treated one girl's problem until the wee hours of the night, calmed her down and helped her, and when we parted she turned to me crying and asked 'Word, can I hug you?'.
"Besides, there were cases in which we purged people of false accusation. This was the case with a certain family, some of whose members were equipped with forged documents, and the Interior Ministry tended to deny them all citizenship. Any suspicion. "
What might bring about the failure that you describe?
"I warn of a real danger of losing the Jewish character of the state. It is not pleasant to deal with it, but it is the truth in its nakedness. The people who entered the country fraudulently are only the beginning of the chain, or if you will, the tip of the iceberg. They take advantage of their status as Israeli citizens to bring more and more people like them to Israel - fictitiously marry and bring to Israel a spouse with children, all of whom are not Jews, of course.
"Sometimes, while working in the Ministry of the Interior, I felt that we surrendered to the crooks of all kinds, and we really opened the gates of Israel to the whole world. The concept of 'Aliyah' has lost its meaning. "They have a connection to our country and our people. Under slogans of imaginary humanity we have raised our hands, and tens of thousands of better life seekers are celebrating at our expense."
What needs to be done to rectify the situation before it is too late?
"I bring in my book a series of recommendations, some substantial, such as restoring the Law of Return to its original wording, as enacted in 1950. Other seemingly technical recommendations, but also designed to prevent the unbearable ease of naturalization in Israel of those who have no connection and affinity to our people. It is possible that a person who is not eligible under the Law of Return will find a loophole and another loophole and eventually ridicule our desire to remain a Jewish state.
"The situation in the field where I worked in the Ministry of the Interior begins to mention the abandonment of Israel, all its institutions, in relation to the rule of law and sovereignty in the Negev. "In exactly the same way, Israel's abandonment, disregard and passivity in the face of waves of crooks who have learned to exploit the loopholes and gain citizenship they do not deserve may turn Israel from the state of the Jewish people into a state of all benefit seekers."
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