Israel Law Enacted 1950-07-05

Law of Return

חוק השבות

Summary

Israeli Basic Law granting every Jew the right to immigrate to Israel and acquire Israeli citizenship. Amended in 1970 to include grandchildren of Jews. Defines who counts as Jewish for the purposes of citizenship; remains a foundational piece of the Jewish-state legal architecture.

Impact

One of the constitutional pillars of the Israeli state. Underwrites the demographic asymmetry between Jewish and Arab citizenship rights and is the structural anchor for ongoing debates about Israel as Jewish vs. democratic. Has consistently been defended by the right (Likud, Religious Zionism) and contested by anti-Zionist parties (Balad, Hadash).

Parties involved

Likud

Sources

introduced_date en.wikipedia.org 2026-06-06 — Passed 1950-07-05

Permalink https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/bills/il-law-of-return-1950

How to cite

This is a citation for the legislation itself — credited to Knesset and dated to its 1950 introduction. Tayyar is the retrieval surface, not the author. A separate "Retrieved via" line records that you accessed it through this dataset.

In-text: (Knesset, 1950)

APA 7Institutional author

Knesset. (1950). Law of Return [Legislation]. https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/bills/il-law-of-return-1950. Retrieved June 21, 2026, from https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/bills/il-law-of-return-1950.

Chicago author-dateCommon in political-science journals

Knesset. 1950. “Law of Return.” Legislation. https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/bills/il-law-of-return-1950. Accessed June 21, 2026.

BibTeXLaTeX / Zotero / reference managers

@misc{tayyar-bill-il-law-of-return-1950,
  title     = {{Law of Return}},
  author    = {{Knesset}},
  year      = {1950},
  date      = {1950-07-05},
  type      = {Legislation},
  url       = {https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/bills/il-law-of-return-1950},
  urldate   = {2026-06-21},
  note      = {Retrieved via Tayyar on June 21, 2026}
}