Germany praised for fast-tracking citizenship for Israeli hostages

Germany fast-tracked the citizenship status of a number of those taken hostage on 7 October, it has emerged, enabling them and their families to receive extra help from the German government in the subsequent period.

Jewish people applying for a German passport under its citizenship by descent scheme usually have to wait approximately two and a half years for approval – but in these specific circumstances, the processing took two weeks.

According to an in-depth report from Times of Israel, the effort, which took place almost entirely under the radar, was coordinated via the German embassy in Tel Aviv who, they say, began receiving desperate calls within hours of Hamas’s massacre.

Due to the disproportionally Ashkenazic makeup of the kibbutz communities on the Gaza border, a number of the 251 kidnapped hostages were either German citizens or eligible for citizenship through their ancestors having lived in Germany. According to estimates by the German embassy, there were about such 30 hostages in Gaza at the peak of the war .

Fourteen of those hostages were released in the November 2023 ceasefire agreement. Some, like Arbel Yehoud and Yocheved Lifschitz, were released in later deals. Others, including Tsahi Idan and Shani Louk, were murdered—as was Oded Lifschitz, who never knew that he was a German citizen, let alone that the German ambassador delivered a eulogy at his funeral. Seven of the fifty hostages still in captivity—Alon Ohel, Gali and Ziv Berman, Itay Chen, Rom Braslavski, Tamir Adar, and Tamir Nimrodi – hold German citizenship as well.

Dalja Gimpel, a German-Israeli immigration lawyer based in Tel Aviv who worked with the hostage families to help them obtain German citizenship, told Times of Israel: “The German authorities dealt with it immediately.

“They really knew what was at stake. They [the hostages in question] were added to the Foreign Ministry’s crisis unit list and treated as Germans.”

Ziv Gome, the uncle of kidnapped teen boys Yagil and Or Yaakov, both released in the 2023 ceasefire agreement, agreed, telling the Israeli paper that “the humanity of the German embassy…it wasn’t expected.

“Nobody tells you what to do — you’re just trying to do everything you can.”

When Yagil and Or were released, they had German passports waiting for them. Their father, Yair, was unfortunately murdered in captivity.

Since 2021, Germany has widened the eligibility for Jews who wish to obtain a German passport to include many individuals who had family members affected by the Nazi regime despite not holding citizenship themselves.

Before that point, that specific German citizenship pathway for Jewish applicants required the applicant to have a parent, grandparent, or great-grandparent who was stripped of their citizenship under the Nazi regime.

The change in rules was part of the loophole that granted these families a lifeline during terrifying times.

German ambassador to Israel Steffen Seibert, told TOI:

“It doesn’t matter if you live in Rehovot or Düsseldorf. If you’re a German citizen, then I am your ambassador.

“This is your embassy. Berlin is your government. And we will try everything we can to get you free.”

While Germany is unable to exert the level of influence on hostage negotiations that the US has, German citizenship [DS1] enables holders to gain access to support and advocacy from the German government and the European Council. The country is the world’s third largest economy by GDP and exercises considerable influence within the European Union.

Oded Lifschitz’s grandson praised Ambassador Seibert in particular.

He told TOI: “He’s the world’s top diplomat supporting the hostages—a beacon of hope. If I could hand him control of the negotiations, I would.”