Israel has revoked the aliyah approval issued by the Jewish Agency of two Jewish activists in their 20s – one a British citizen and the other an American – who do not know each other. Both have been active in recent years in protective presence in the West Bank, which involves staying in Palestinian communities to deter settler and military violence and document attacks.
The two were informed of the revocation after the Jewish Agency, which handles immigration from Western countries, had approved their applications. The Population and Immigration Authority has not yet given a reason for halting the process. In response to a query from Haaretz, however, it did not deny that the reason was their involvement in protecting Palestinians from settler violence.
The Jewish Agency told the two that the Population Authority is "examining" their eligibility under the Entry into Israel Law. That law governs entry by people who are neither citizens nor new immigrants, and it has no bearing whatsoever on prospective immigrants.
Haaretz has previously reported that Israel is systematically deporting foreign activists engaged in protective presence in the West Bank, including, in some cases, Jewish activists. These are the first known cases, however, in which the authorities appear to be violating the Law of Return, which grants every Jew the right to immigrate to Israel. Both activists said they had never been involved in a violent incident, let alone any criminal activity, in the West Bank or anywhere else.
'My whole life is there'
Lawrence (Ya'aqov) Shenkin grew up in a Modern Orthodox family in Golders Green, a London suburb. As a teenager ,he was active in the Bnei Akiva and Ezra youth movements. Shenkin, 23, was raised as a Zionist, and his dream has always been to live in Israel. At 18, as soon as his parents allowed it, he came to study at Yeshivat HaKotel on a student visa. He went on to live in Israel for about five years.
He considers himself a follower of the moderate approach of Rabbis Yehuda Amital and Menachem Froman, and the yeshiva's right-wing bent did not sit well with him. After two years ,he moved to the Jerusalem College of Technology, which combines Torah study with technical degrees. At the same time, Shenkin told Haaretz that he was looking for a community that better reflected his liberal values. In 2023, he joined Bnei Avraham, a group of religious Jews who protect Palestinian communities in the West Bank from violence and expulsion.
At first Shenkin went with the group mainly to Hebron. In the first half of 2025, the group's work centered on the Jordan Valley, where it protected two herding communities that were driven out later that year, Ras Ein al-Auja and Mu'arrajat. In June 2025, near Mu'arrajat, Gabriel Kalish, who identifies himself as the security coordinator of the Mevo'ot Yericho settlement, used his car to block Shenkin and another activist. He demanded that Shenkin show his passport and threatened to "detain" him. At the same time, Shenkin says, Kalish told him he could have him deported.
According to Shenkin, this was not the only time Kalish threatened to have him deported. Shenkin showed him a photo of his passport that he had on him, and Kalish took a picture of it. Speaking to Haaretz, Kalish refused to say whether he later passed Shenkin's details on to the Population Authority or any other official body, or whether he pushed for Shenkin to be deported.
The Israel Defense Forces told Haaretz that Kalish has not been called up for reserve duty in a long time. As of publication, however, the army could not say whether Kalish was actually serving as security coordinator in June 2025 and acting under the army's authority or on its behalf. It also could not say whether he was impersonating one.
About six months later, in early January 2026, Shenkin received an email from the Population Authority. It informed him that his electronic travel authorization (ETA) had been canceled "due to a change in the circumstances of his file." He says this did not worry him. About two months earlier he had begun the formal aliyah process with the Jewish Agency, and he was sure the cancellation was related to it.
"I don't need an ETA anymore, I thought – I'm just making aliyah," Shenkin said. He later discovered that around the same time, many other protective presence activists had received identical notices from the Population Authority canceling their ETAs.
For several months, the aliyah process stalled. Shenkin submitted all his documents to the Jewish Agency, but when he asked for updates, he says,he was told to "be patient." Meanwhile, Israel and the United States launched a war on Iran. With Passover approaching, Shenkin decided to go to London to visit his parents. When he tried to return to Israel, his application for a new ETA was rejected.
He had left everything behind in Israel: the girlfriend he intended to propose to, a job offer, the apartment he was renting, his books and even most of his clothes. Now he was stuck in London. "I missed the semikhah [rabbinic ordination] course – it started without me, and now they'll probably kick me out. I missed the date I'd picked to propose to my girlfriend. My life has been completely wrecked by this," he said. "Immigrating is a long, hard process, but I can't even get into the country. If I could go there even as a tourist and sort things out, it would be so much simpler. My community is there, my friends are there, my girlfriend is there. My whole life is there."
Shenkin did not give up. He restarted the aliyah process through the Jewish Agency's London office. In July he received a "mazal tov email," the agency's official confirmation that his eligibility for aliyah had been approved. It listed the technical steps he needed to take to complete the process. Less than a month later, in early August, he received another email. It stated that "based on information received from the Population and Immigration Authority, and in accordance with Section 40 of the Entry into Israel Law, the approval of your eligibility for aliyah is currently under review by the Authority and is temporarily revoked."
In late August, attorney Michael Sfard, who represents Shenkin, sent a letter to the director general of the Population Authority and the head of the Population Administration. In it, he pointed out that the Entry into Israel Law has only 19 sections. Speaking to Haaretz, however, Sfard said he assumes the email was referring to Amendment No. 40 to the law, which took effect last year.
That amendment bars entry to Holocaust deniers, October 7 deniers and people who have called for a boycott of Israel or for IDF soldiers to be prosecuted abroad. Shenkin says he has never done any of these things. Sfard stresses that the Entry into Israel Law is irrelevant to Shenkin's application in any case, because aliyah applications are governed by the Law of Return. The Population Authority has not yet responded to Sfard's letter.
Shenkin's aliyah application will expire at the end of October, because documents must be resubmitted six months after the last ones were filed. "They're going to keep pushing it off, again and again and again," he said of the Israeli authorities. "I keep feeling like it's about to be resolved, it's about to be resolved – but it never happens. I can't live like this for months. I need to know what's going on with my life."
'Proof' of activity
Shenkin is not the only one. Haaretz spoke with a 27-year-old American Jewish woman, a law student at a U.S. university, who asked that her name not be published. Her story is almost identical. In June 2025 she was detained by soldiers near the settlement of Neve Daniel, along with a group of protective presence activists. The soldiers photographed her passport – a moment captured in a picture obtained by Haaretz.
About six months later, her ETA was canceled. She had previously lived in Israel for about two years and had since left the country. Her relatives, with whom she is close, still live in Israel, as does her partner, whom she now has to meet abroad. She too began the aliyah process with the Jewish Agency from overseas and received confirmation of her eligibility. The agency later informed her that the Population Authority had temporarily revoked her eligibility and that it was under review.
Like Shenkin, the law student says she has never been involved in any violent incident in the West Bank. As part of her protective presence work, she says, she documented violence from a distance but never took part in a confrontation herself. Apart from the terse email from the Jewish Agency, she has received no official explanation for the revocation of her ETA or for the later suspension of her aliyah eligibility. She has contacted the Population Authority repeatedly to find out why.
After her ETA was canceled, her partner contacted a senior Population and Immigration Authority official on WhatsApp. In the exchange, obtained by Haaretz, the partner asked why the ETA had been revoked. The official replied: "We don't let in activists who act against Israel." He claimed to have "proof" of her activity but refused to show it. She told Haaretz she has no idea what proof he was referring to.
"I was planning to spend my whole summer break in Israel. My cousin just had a baby, and it's sad that I couldn't be there with her," she said. "It's also really worrying. If something happens to my family or friends in Israel, I won't even be able to get there to be with them."
Shenkin was asked whether months of setbacks, and the violence and lawlessness he had seen in the West Bank, had discouraged him or made him reconsider immigrating. He answered passionately: "Because I'm left-wing, a lot of people don't get that I'm religious. For me, living in Israel is a biblical commandment. Every minute I'm not there hurts. I came here for my parents' sake, but if it were up to me, I wouldn't leave Israel even for the holidays. Every time I left Israel, I'd ask my rabbi whether I was allowed to leave for this reason or that one. I know it sounds crazy, and it's the kind of thing hilltop youth do, but it's what I believe."
Shenkin added: "I have so much love for Israel, faith in Israel and hope for it. The people in power right now are challenging that, but the principle stays the same. What's happening here is anti-Zionist. After all, the whole promise of Israel is that any Jew can move there simply because they're Jewish. And now there's this new idea that you have to support a certain agenda, or else we don't want you."
The Jewish Agency said in response: "The Population and Immigration Authority is the government body responsible for implementing the Law of Return. In light of this, and for reasons of privacy, we cannot comment on the details of the cases."
The Population Authority said of the two cases: "The applications have been received, and each is being examined individually, on its own merits. Once a decision is made, each applicant will be formally notified."
Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, a liberal U.S. Jewish group, told Haaretz, "This is a grotesque betrayal of what a Jewish state should stand for. Israel should be welcoming Jews who live out our highest values – not shutting its doors on Jews who protect Palestinians from terror and violence."
The IDF has yet to respond to questions about whether the soldiers who photographed the woman's passport passed her details on to the authorities. Nor has it clarified whether Gabriel Kalish is in fact the security coordinator of Mevo'ot Yericho, or whether he was acting in that capacity in June 2025 when he photographed Shenkin's passport.
