Tag Archive for Inquisition

Palestinian from Dubai attains Spanish citizenship after discovering Jewish roots

After finding her great-grandmother’s old identity cards in Beirut, Heba was able to seek Spanish citizenship following a 2015 law that allowed naturalization to anyone whose Jewish ancestors ‘fled’ the Spanish Inquisition.

By CNAAN LIPHSHIZ/JTA

 

As a UK-based academic who was born in Dubai to a Palestinian father and Lebanese mother, Heba Nabil Iskandarani had plenty of potential national identities.

What she lacked, however, was a passport.

A 26-year-old lecturer in architecture at Birmingham City University, Iskandarani has been stateless for most of her life, possessing only a Lebanese travel document that defines her as a Palestinian refugee.

Heba Nabil Iskandarani’s newly acquired Spanish Passport and her Lebanese refugee Passport.-

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Portugal: The only country besides Israel with a Jewish ‘Law of Return’

What began as a Facebook movement in favor of Portugal’s atoning for the Inquisition, was unanimously accepted in the Portuguese parliament and blossomed into a law which may help Portugal cope with its hurting recession.

Jose Ribeiro e Castro speaking at the Portuguese parliament, 2012. (Portugal's National Assembly)

Jose Ribeiro e Castro, shown speaking at the Portuguese parliament in 2012, said that for him, naturalizing the descendants of expelled Jews was “purely a historical and emotional goal.”

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