A new German citizenship law has been enacted, requiring those seeking citizenship to acknowledge that Israel has a “Right to Exist.”
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Wednesday, “Anyone who shares our values and makes an effort can now get a German passport more quickly and no longer has to give up part of their identity by giving up their old nationality. But we have also made it just as clear: anyone who does not share our values cannot get a German passport.”
She confirmed that new questions on the topics of anti-Semitism, the right to the existence of an Israeli state and Jewish life in Germany have been added to the citizenship test.
German Chancellor Olaf Schulz made dual citizenship a key point of his election campaign and promised to reduce the time it takes for new citizens to obtain a German passport to five years in his election campaign of 2021.
The first generation of immigrants was not allowed to have dual citizenship. However, rising anti-Semitism, increasingly divisive debates about Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and the popularity of anti-immigrant, far-right politics led to a revision of the citizenship law.
In December last year, the East German state of Saxony-Anhalt made it mandatory for those who want to become German citizens to recognise Israel’s right to exist.
