Last update - 00:00 23/10/2007
Germany set to demand explanations about Nativ activity
By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz Correspondent
Germany will demand explanations about Israel's intention to expand the Nativ agency's operations to Germany during Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman's visit in Berlin this week, Haaretz has learned.
Nativ, a semi-covert agency founded within the Prime Minister's Office in the 1950s, operated in the former Soviet Union (FSU) to help bring Jews to Israel, and as a liaison to Jewish dissidents. Since the Soviet Union's collapse, it has dealt with processing immigration to Israel and running Israeli FSU culture centers.
Nativ has recently been transferred from the Prime Minister's Office to Lieberman's new ministry.
Two Nativ agents are scheduled to arrive soon in Germany to open an agency office in the Israel Embassy in Berlin, and to start encouraging immigration to Israel among some 200,000 Russian-speaking Jews who have recently emigrated to Germany.
The initiative to expand Nativ's operations to Germany has angered Jewish community leaders, who blasted it in talks with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Germany has made no official protest, but senior German Foreign Ministry officials said they supported the Jewish community's position and expected explanations from Israel.
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