קאנאדע הערט איבער רב העלבראנס ארגומענטן
דא שמועסט מען צו הרב העלבראנס אויסגעליפערינג ווערן צוריק קיין ארץ ישראל שטעלט אים אריין אין א סכנה.
Government wants anti-Zionist rabbi's immigration case reheard
By JANICE ARNOLD
Staff Reporter
The fate of a self-styled chassidic rabbi who, because of his extreme anti-Zionist views, claims his life is in danger if he is deported to his native Israel, is now in the hands of a Federal Court judge.
The Canadian government says the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) erred in granting refugee status to Rabbi Shlomo Erez Elbarnes in October 2003, and wants his case reheard by another panel. He has been living in in Ste. Agathe in the Laurentians for 41/2 years, leading a community of about 30 families.
The government allowed Elbarnes' refugee claim to be heard, despite the fact that he was convicted in 1994 of kidnapping a 13-year-old boy in the United States, served two years in prison, and was deported to Israel in 2000.
Last week at a judicial review, Judge Michel Beaudry heard Justice Department lawyer Sherry Rafai Far argue that the IRB did not give enough consideration to whether Elbarnes had exhausted recourses open to him in Israel to protect him from the defamation, harassment, threats and physical attacks he allegedly suffered. Elbarnes also alleges that Israel's intelligence services were working to lay false charges against him and is afraid he may be killed in a ''targeted assassination.''
Rafai Far noted that Israel is a democratic country with an independent judiciary, a police review committee, and non-governmental civil rights organizations to which he could complain about persecution.
She also argued that Elbarnes' claimed fear of persecution is inconsistent with his return to Israel for three weeks in December 2001, after he settled in Canada.
She said the government is not disputing the evidence entered by Elbarnes' lawyer, Julius Grey.
That evidence is that, during the 1980s before moving to Monsey, N.Y., in 1990, Elbarnes was beaten repeatedly, received death threats and was subject to unrelenting hostility, which the authorities did nothing about. Much of the alleged abuse came from ''vigilante''settlers, who are legally armed, Grey noted.
Grey said the police told Elbarnes that he was ''crazy'' and deserved what he was getting. Elbarnes alleges the Shin Bet, the Israeli secret service, threatened to ''frame'' him if he didn't get out of the country. (This testimony was given by a former agent, identified as Mr. Goldman, who is today Elbarnes' assistant.)
Moreover, Grey said Elbarnes was the target of a '' hostile propaganda campaign'' by the Israeli media, pointing to a March 2003 television program that suggested Elbarnes sanctioned the killing of Jews who leave their religion, when, in fact, he was stating that this biblical precept is not applicable today. Grey entered a video of the interview as proof.
Elbarnes, founder of Hisachdus Hayereim (Union of the God-Fearing), actively advocates the dismantling of the State of Israel and the land's return to Arab domination – but by peaceful means, Grey added.
Grey said countries ''at war'' tend to restrict liberties and take a dim view of those trying to undermine the state.
''Whether [Elbarnes'] views are right or wrong makes absolutely no difference'' as to whether Elbarnes should be accepted as a refugee, Grey told the court. ''The question is whether the evidence is reasonable'' that Elbarnes faces the possibility of persecution in Israel.
An expert witness, Israeli lawyer Jacob Kaminsky, said it would be ''suicide'' for Elbarnes to stay in Israel. Another, Université de Montréal historian Yakov Rabkin, testified that, because of the ongoing conflict, Israel is more ''authoritarian'' and Israeli society is increasingly intolerant of anyone perceived to be playing into the hands of the enemy.
Elbarnes's brief return to Israel in 2001, Grey said, was before he made a refugee application and his experience at that time confirmed his belief he could not live in Israel.
Elbarnes, 42, was granted refugee status by IRB judge Gilles Ethier, who based his decision on documents, written testimony and the oral testimony of eight witnesses, including Elbarnes' mother, described as secular, and the abducted boy, now an adult.
Ethier wrote: ''The evidence clearly shows that the claimant was persecuted for his opinions… and allows us to conclude that the alleged fear of future persecution is well founded, as the state was unable to and did not want to protect him and even contributed to defaming him as much as possible in the eyes of the public.
''At a time when tensions are exacerbated in Israel, I believe that the claimant would quickly be persecuted there, should he return.''
Ethier cites evidence that, upon his arrival in Israel in May 2000, Elbarnes was informed by ''two government agents that he was on a list of potential enemies of the state, that he had to learn a lesson from what had happened to him in the United States and that he had better keep quiet and stop spreading ideas that endangered the country's security if he did not want to end up in prison.''
Elbarnes left Israel on June 20, 2000 to rejoin his family which had since resettled in Quebec. (Elbarnes has not ceased his anti-Zionist activities here; he has publicly burned the Israeli flag, given media interviews and distributed printed material.)
Elbarnes stayed in Canada on a visitor's visas that expired in March 2002. His application for residence was turned down when Canadian authorities became aware he had served time in the U.S., according to Ethier. Elbarnes then filed for refugee protection on Jan. 27, 2003.
Ethier decided not to hold Elbarnes' criminal record against him, in light of the testimony by Shai Fhima Reuven that Elbarnes did not kidnap him but was trying to help him escape an abusive stepfather and that he was grateful to him. Ethier notes that Elbarnes' sentence was reduced to two years from six by the New York Supreme Court because of what Ethier calls Elbarnes' ''altruistic motivation.''
Beaudry said he will render judgment early in the new year.
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