Plane Tragedy Exposes Divisions Within Israel

The death of dozens of Russian-born Israelis in an air disaster over the Black Sea has revived a debate here over the status of immigrants in a country that is built on immigration but where newcomers often have trouble fitting in.

Israeli commentators, rabbis and political figures questioned Sunday whether the victims in last week’s crash of a Russian charter flight were being mourned appropriately. And some suggested that had those aboard been “real Israelis”--Jews who were born in Israel or came many years ago--the outrage and sorrow would be far greater than what has surfaced.

“It is safe to assume that had the dozens of victims on [Siberian Airlines] Flight Number 1812 had names like Yael, Omer, Haim and Leah and not Yulia, Alex, Victor and Irena, the displays of mourning and grief in the media and the Israeli street would have been more pronounced,” commentator Orna Landau wrote in Israel’s top-selling newspaper, Yediot Aharonot.

But because many people aboard the plane were recently arrived immigrants and their deaths probably the result of a tragic accident rather than terrorism, Landau noted, they have been left “in their deaths as in their lives, on the fringes of Israeli society and outside of the collective embrace.”

It was the second time in little more than four months that tragedy has struck the Russian Israeli community. On June 1, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up outside a crowded Tel Aviv disco; most of the 21 other people killed were Russian-born teenage girls.

Yisrael Meir Lau, one of Israel’s two chief rabbis, said he had believed the disco bombing “brought the Russian immigrants closer to the veteran Israeli society” because of the widespread national solidarity expressed at the time. But now he has doubts.

“This calamity,” he told Israeli radio, “when the names do not sound so familiar and when their circle of acquaintances is still very narrow, created a situation where we don’t all share the feelings we should.”

More than 1 million people from the former Soviet Union have immigrated to Israel in the last two decades and now constitute about one-sixth of the population. Despite some integration into the political and cultural arenas, most of them have maintained a highly insulated community, and tragedy only seems to sharpen the isolation.

Israelis use the term “Russian” to refer to all immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

Israel dispatched two flights to the Russian Black Sea on Sunday carrying relatives and army personnel. Military experts will assist with the salvage operation and forensic identifications of recovered bodies. Several rabbis also in the delegation will help with Jewish death rituals.

U.S. officials have said the jetliner appears to have been downed by an errant missile fired during Ukrainian military exercises.

At least 50 of the 78 passengers and crew members aboard the weekly flight from Tel Aviv to the Siberian city of Novosibirsk were Israeli citizens, according to the travel agency that sold the tickets. Most were immigrants traveling to their native land for a holiday visit, or Russians returning home after visits to family that had moved here. There were many families who lost two or more members in the crash: two mothers traveling with two of their children; a woman and her grandson. The crash also claimed the lives of an aspiring concert pianist and a 19-year-old female soldier in the Israeli army.

A. B. Yehoshua, one of Israel’s leading novelists, praised Russian immigration as one of the most wonderful blessings ever to have graced the Jewish state, a flow of unparalleled significance in arming Israel in its demographic war with the region’s Arabs. He urged the government to hold national memorial services and remembrances for those on board the Siberian Airlines flight.

“In the 1950s, when a plane from [the Israeli national carrier] El Al was shot down under similar circumstances, the event caused rioting and great pain,” Yehoshua wrote in Sunday’s Maariv newspaper. “Perhaps our hearts have become coarse. I sincerely hope that this event is not causing fewer echoes because this time the passengers didn’t seem important enough.”

The debate this time around was fueled by the Tel Aviv municipality’s decision to go ahead Thursday, the day of the crash, with a planned Love Parade, an irreverent and raucous celebration that many Israelis felt was an inappropriate display.

Israeli Jews also are marking the weeklong Sukkot holiday, and shows of mourning are not permitted during holidays. So there can be none of the lowering of flags or other public signs of sorrow.

Under Israel’s Law of Return, anyone with a Jewish grandparent can immigrate to Israel and receive housing and other benefits. Once in Israel, however, to qualify as a Jew and be able to marry and be buried in Jewish cemeteries, one must meet the requirements of Jewish law: the person must have a Jewish mother or have converted under strict guidelines.

Consequently, many of the former Soviet residents are not considered Jewish and have never practiced Judaism. Conservative religious segments of Israeli society scorn their presence here.

Their lives here are further insulated by the size of their community. They can maintain the Russian language, have Russian-language newspapers (one of which rivals in circulation the country’s largest Hebrew-language daily) and vote for parties that look to their interests.

“Word gets back to Russia that you can come to Israel and live their Russian culture and have a support network,” in contrast to countries where they would be more assimilated, said Michael Jankelowitz, spokesman for the Jewish Agency, which promotes immigration to Israel.

Jankelowitz disagreed with the notion that Israelis were indifferent to the plight of the air crash victims.

“Russians do not have connections with the mainstream,” he said, “but for the country as a whole, this is a major, major trauma.”