Israel is considering enacting harsh measures against Russia if it follows through on an order to shut down the Jewish Agency's operations in the country, a senior Israeli official told Ynet on Sunday.
The source said that in such a case, Jerusalem would call back its ambassador in Moscow for consultations.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin; Prime Minister Yair Lapid
(Photo: AP, Marc Israel Sellem)
"We are in a battle here. This is not about closing a McDonald's," the source said, referring to the mass exodus of Western companies from Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine. "Closing the agency under legal pretense is a political issue, and we're not going to go over this quietly."
A Moscow court said last week that the Justice Ministry had requested the "dissolution" of the Jewish Agency due to unspecified legal violations, and set a hearing for July 28.
Some experts interpreted the move as a shot across the bow from the Kremlin toward Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who has taken a tougher rhetorical line over the Ukraine conflict compared to his predecessor Naftali Bennett who stepped down on July 1.
According to a readout of the weekly Cabinet meeting, Lapid said on Sunday that "closing the Jewish Agency's offices would be a serious event that would affect relations."
He also ordered that a "legal delegation be prepared to depart for Moscow as soon as the Russian approval for talks is received and to make every effort to exhaust the legal dialogue" on top of diplomatic efforts to solve the dispute.
The Jewish Agency, established in 1929, played a key role in the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.
It began its operations in Russia in 1989, two years before the collapse of the Soviet Union, after which hundreds of thousands of Jews from all over the USSR immigrated to Israel.