Yamina Party chairwoman Ayelet Shaked speaks at the Conference of the Manufacturers Association in Tel Aviv, on September 2, 2019. Photo: Flash90.

i24 News – Israel’s Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked ordered the Population and Immigration Authority to grant entry to couples into the Jewish state even if only one spouse holds Israeli citizenship, Israeli media reported Tuesday.

According to the new directive, Russian partners will be admitted into Israel even if they are not registered as married to an Israeli in the country, as long as they can prove that their marriage is official.

The move will effectively allow couples fleeing Russia’s recent call for mobilization to come to Israel without having to deal with months of administrative hurdles.

Following a Haaretz report on the deportation of the Russian wife and son of an Israeli passport holder, the new guidelines state that when a married couple arrives at Israel’s border without being registered as spouses, they must show documents to Nativ, the aliyah organization responsible for Jews from the former Soviet Union.

If Nativ approves their entry, the foreign spouse will be granted entry to Israel along with the couple’s children. In the event that the couple does not have the proper documents, only the Israeli passport holder will be admitted into the country.

Shaked’s announcement came after Haaretz shed light on the story of the son and disabled wife of an Israeli citizen living in Russia, who sought to return to Israel amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Instead, the Israeli man’s family was deported to Turkey after landing at Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport on October 2.