Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv’s Habimah Square to voice their support for Ukraine as the country’s leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, addressed the Knesset. Photo: Reuters/Corinna Kern

Eight-five prominent Ukrainian Jews have signed on to a public appeal directed at Israeli authorities imploring them to loosen immigration restrictions on refugees fleeing the Russian invasion, local news outlets reported on Sunday.

Published by the RBC news agency, the statement lauded the Jewish state as an example to Ukraine in its demonstration of “resilience, heroism and selfless struggle for freedom and independence.” The signatories expressed gratitude, as “the Jews of Ukraine,” for Israel’s support of a UN General Assembly resolution condemning Russian aggression, providing humanitarian assistance to those displaced by Russian bombardment and for the mediation effort led by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

However, the statement emphasized that “today, when the whole of Ukraine has stood up to defend its independence, many citizens of Ukraine are turning to us with embarrassment and despair concerning these decisions taken by the State of Israel” with regard to the tightening of immigration and entry rules.

Among the reported signatories to the statement are the two chief rabbis of Ukraine, Moshe Azman and Yaakov Dov Bleich, Igor Surkis, president of the Dinamo Kyiv soccer club, Josef Zissels, president of the Ukrainian Jewish Va’ad organization, Boris Lozhkin, a businessman and the president of the Jewish Council of Ukraine (JCU) and Faina Ioffe, the JCU’s director.

In a speech on Sunday to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, that criticized the Israeli response to the Russian invasion on several counts, Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the assembled lawmakers, “We ask for your help, even for basic visas.”

In their statement, issued a few hours before Zelensky spoke, the Ukrainian Jewish leaders declared: “Israel has repeatedly and with justified indignation pointed out that during the Second World War many countries of the world closed their borders to Jewish refugees. Therefore the current position of the country regarding refugees from Ukraine — non-Jewish — is nonsense for us.”

It continued: “We are convinced that in a time of war, closing the door to Ukrainians and introducing quotas and other restrictions is extremely inhumane. This situation significantly undermines the international authority of the State of Israel.”

Under rules laid out by Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked on March 10, 20,000 Ukrainians who were in Israel, many of them illegally, were permitted to remain. Shaked also set an additional quota of 5,000 Ukrainians who would be accepted following the outbreak of hostilities. A further rule requires Ukrainian citizens traveling to Israel to submit an application to the Israeli Foreign Ministry for a travel permit before boarding a plane.

On Sunday, Israel’s High Court questioned whether Shaked had the authority to impose new rules during a hearing based on a complaint filed on behalf of the Ukrainian Embassy in Israel. Tomer Varsha, a lawyer representing the Ukrainians, had earlier argued that Shaked had exceeded her authority by allegedly canceling the visa-free travel regime agreed by Israel and Ukraine in 2010. Shaked now has until March 28 to update the High Court judges on changes to the quota governing Ukrainian arrivals.

Separately, Shaked announced in a tweet that on Sunday, more Ukrainians arrived in Israel claiming citizenship under the Law of Return than on tourist visas.

There were “438 entitled to the Law of Return versus 330 in a tourist visa” in the last day, Shaked said, going on to predict that “by the beginning of next week we will reach 10,000 immigrants.” Shaked also confirmed that would be no cap on the number of Ukrainian refugees with a relative in Israel, but who do not qualify for citizenship, who are permitted to enter the country.

Meanwhile, the fallout from Zelensky’s address to the Knesset continued on Monday, as the head of the Ukrainian parliament’s group for relations with Israel delivered a ringing endorsement of his leader’s words.

Georgy Logvinsky told Ukrainian media that he had received several calls from Israeli lawmakers and journalists who shared Zelensky’s outrage, claiming that “it was absolute shock for them that [Russian President] Putin, as a reincarnation of Hitler, uses even the same terminology as 80 years ago,” during the Nazi Holocaust.

In his speech, Zelensky accused Russia of preparing a “final solution” for Ukraine — an invocation of the Holocaust that many of the Israeli lawmakers had found objectionable. Nevertheless, Logvinsky insisted that Zelensky had been right to draw the comparison with the Nazi genocide of the Jews.

“We are two nations that others have sought to destroy, but we have survived,” he said, in remarks quoted by Ukrainian broadcaster TSN.

“Today, Jews in Ukraine are experiencing deja vu,” Logvinsky continued. “Eighty years ago, they wanted to wipe them off the face of the earth because they are Jews; today it’s because they are Ukrainians.”