Questions added to citizenship test on antisemitism, Israel and Germany's responsibility towards Jewish people

Applicants for German citizenship will be required to explicitly affirm Israel’s right to exist under a new citizenship law which came into effect on Tuesday.

The new law shortened the number of years that a person must have lived in Germany in order to obtain a passport, from eight to five years. It will also allow first-generation migrants to be dual citizens.

As part of the shake-up, new questions were added to the country’s citizenship test, including about Judaism and Israel’s right to exist.

  • kbal
    10•5 months ago

    The intention is good I suppose, but it seems unfair to those who don’t believe that nation-states in general have rights that should require our affirmation, even while they have many powers we must respect. Are they also made to affirm the right of Germany to exist? They’ve made a rule which denies would-be citizens the right to espouse anarchism, which seems like a step in the direction of removing human rights.

    • poVoqMEnglish
      24•5 months ago

      As anarchists refuse the legitimacy of the state in general, they will have no problem to just fake it 😎

      • kbal
        8•5 months ago

        Me? I’m not so anarchist that I personally have a problem with pledging allegiance to a flag or whatevs, just anarchist enough that I find it somewhat odd when people assume that everyone is part of “you” and “us” groups of that kind.

        I guess it’s just that having to acknowledge the sovereign powers of some country other than the one you’re applying for citizenship in is unusual enough to make this sort of weird power to define our views of the world that the modern state has achieved stand out a little more than usual.