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Office of the Jewish Agency in Moscow: The organization takes care of the immigration of Jews from all over the world to Israel
Photo: Evgenia Novozhenina / REUTERS
The Ukraine war strains the relationship between Israel and Russia.
Now the Russian Ministry of Justice is striving for the dissolution of the Jewish Agency - and in doing so is causing tensions to escalate.
The organization takes care of the immigration of Jews from all over the world to Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Jair Lapid warns that if the Jewish Agency for Israel is actually dissolved, relations between the two countries will deteriorate.
A ban is a "serious event," Lapid said, according to his office.
According to this, a delegation is to travel to Moscow in the course of the week to change the mind of the Russian authorities.
The Russian Ministry of Justice had filed a lawsuit against the non-governmental organization in the Moscow District Court.
According to media reports, this is said to have political reasons.
The court hearing is scheduled for July 28.
Does Russia want to prevent further emigration?
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that the Justice Ministry's actions against the organization were related to violations of Russian laws.
He dismissed speculation that Moscow was trying to prevent more "smart minds" from Russia from migrating to Israel.
According to the Israeli Ministry of Integration, almost 17,000 people have left Russia for Israel so far this year – more than twice as many as last year.
In Israel, however, people are convinced that Moscow wants to punish the country for its attitude in the Ukraine war by banning the Jewish Agency for Israel.
The Israeli government has condemned Russia's attack on the neighboring country and declared its solidarity with Ukraine.
In contrast to the western states, however, Israel has not yet imposed any sanctions on Russia.
Observers justify this with Israel's security interests.
Among other things, Russia has a major influence on the situation in Syria, a neighboring country to Israel.
asc/dpa