From: arens@ISI.EDU (Yigal Arens)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast
Subject: Re: Dual citizenship, US-Israel. (was Re: Kahane's philosophy)
Date: 16 Dec 92 01:46:37 GMT
	<Dec15.195516.63385@yuma.ACNS.ColoState.EDU>
Organization: USC/Information Sciences Institute
In-reply-to: bh437292@longs.LANCE.ColoState.Edu's message of 15 Dec 92 19:55:16 GMT

In article <Dec15.195516.63385@yuma.ACNS.ColoState.EDU> bh437292@longs.LANCE.ColoState.Edu (Basil Hamdan) writes:
>
> Basically, Americans are allowed to become dual citizens of other
> countries (that do not require them to give up American citizenship)
> if they are non naturalized citizens, or naturalized as children.
> If they are naturalized citizens as adults, then they are asked
> to forego all previous nationalities in order to aquire the US
> nationality. . . 

Sorry, but this is not correct.  My wife and several close friends are
US citizen who were naturalized as adults, so I have had quite extensive
experience in this matter.  In addition, I am a US citizen who became
an Israeli citizen, so I have firsthand knowledge of what that involves
as well.

An adult who undergoes naturalization in the US is required to formally
renounce allegiance to all foreign countries.  However, that is *not*
interpreted as requiring the actual renunciation of foreign
*citizenship*.  No prior demand is made that foreign citizenship be
renounced, nor is there any followup to see what the naturalized
person's citizenship status is later.  My wife and friends are
naturalized US citizens and still hold foreign citizenships.

> Here is an excerpt(I can e-mail the complete and long document
> to anyone concerned or interested):
>
> Q:  Does the US have a special agreement with Israel permitting people
>     to be dual US/Israeli citizens?
>
> A:  No.  It just happens that Israeli citizenship law does not require
>     renunciation of one's old citizenship in order to become a citizen
>     of Israel.  In this regard, Israel is treated no differently from
>     Canada, the UK, France, or other countries which permit people to
>     become citizens without giving up their old status.

Indeed the US does not have any special agreement in this regard with
Israel.  But there is still a difference between what happens when one
acquires Israeli citizenship as opposed to the citizenship of any other
country I'm familiar with.  It used to make a significant difference.

When one acquires Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return (and it is
extremely rare for anyone to get it otherwise, despite what some here
have claimed), the person in question never makes an explicit request
for Israeli citizenship.  The immigrant simply states upon entry that
s/he is "returning", whereupon they are given a form informing them that
unless they object within a specified time (3 weeks, I believe), they
will *automatically* be granted Israeli citizenship.

There was a time, certainly until the 1950s, perhaps later, when the US
government considered the voluntary naturalization of the US citizen in
a foreign country as grounds for revoking US citizenship.  The Israeli
arrangement made it possible for people to claim that Israeli
citizenship was foisted upon them without any action on their part.
This argument was accepted by the US.

Today, the interpretation of US law is different.  It is virtually
impossible to lose US citizenship without explicitly requesting so from
the US government.  Even then it is not clear that such a request is
irrevocable.  So the Israeli arrangment is irrelevant.

>     I've been told that the US State Department has granted additional
>     autonomy to its consular officials in Israel to deal with dual-
>     citizenship claims without having to forward them all to Washington.
>     This was reportedly done because there are so many such cases in
>     Israel, however, and is not the result of any special treaty or
>     other agreement with that country.

I don't know how the State Department handles the issue of mere dual
citizenship.  I do know that at least until the mid 1970s (and possibly
to this day, although I doubt it) the US considered voluntary service in
a foreign army as grounds for revoking citizenship, and the case of
every US citizen who served in the Israeli army had to be cleared with
the State Department.  All one had to do, though, was provide a
statement to the effect that the service was not voluntary (as Israel
has a draft), and one's US citizenship was not in jeopardy.  Until 1974
every such case had to be formally decided by the State Department in
Washington.  In 1974 authority to make such routine rulings was given to
the American diplomatic missions in Israel and East Jerusalem.

>     Note that serving in a foreign army does =not= automatically cause
>     you to lose US citizenship.  As explained below, if you do this with
>     the =intent= of thereby giving up your US citizenship, then yes, you
>     can end up losing your US citizenship.  So, again, the fact that
>     most dual US/Israeli citizens can fulfill their obligation to serve
>     in the Israeli army (IDF) without losing their US status is not the
>     result of any special treaty between the US and Israel.

See above for some relevant information.
--
Yigal Arens
USC/ISI                                                TV made me do it!
arens@isi.edu