dwamiecze
01.12.03, 20:32
washingtontimes.com/world/20031129-115546-1459r.htm
JERUSALEM — Alarm over emigration levels is growing among Israel's political
leadership as the country's Jews seek to escape the violence of the
Palestinian uprising and deepening recession.
The government wants to bring another million Jews to Israel by 2010. Yet
figures released by the ministry responsible for helping new immigrants show
that an estimated 760,000 Israelis are living abroad, up from 550,000 in
2000.
Just 23,000 people are expected to move to Israel this year, the lowest
figure since 1989.
Tzipi Livni, who heads the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, has
described immigration as being in a "tailspin."
Christine Shalev, 36, who has a 3-year-old daughter, made the decision to
join the exodus when her best friend left for Canada two months ago.
"Israel is falling apart and enough is enough," said Ms. Shalev, who
works for a delivery service in Tel Aviv. "I feel trapped here but I hope in
Canada I can find my freedom."
Hard-line Israeli politicians are eager to boost the Jewish population to
underpin their claim for more land.
Yet Interior Ministry figures show that a quarter of the Americans who
have come to Israel since 1989 have left.
On Internet bulletin boards such as Janglo, aimed at English speakers in
Jerusalem, many emigrants are selling off possessions before they leave the
country.
Demographers have warned that at the present rate, Jews will become a
minority in Israel and the occupied territories within 20 years.
Michael Jankelowitz, a spokesman for the Jewish Agency, a government body
responsible for bringing Jews to Israel, admits the scale of the challenge
facing the government.
"There is big concern about what is happening," he said. "This is why
finding a peaceful resolution is so important. At the moment people do not
see a solution and this is the tragedy. The insecurity drives them crazy.
It's like Russian roulette — you don't know when it is going to hit you."
Emigrants are reluctant to talk about their departure because Jewish
immigration to Israel is the cornerstone of Zionism, the Jewish national
movement.
The late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin once described Jews who emigrated
as the "lowliest of parasites."
Many families head for Canada. So far 6,000 Israelis have moved there
this year, double last year's total.
One couple, who did not wish to be identified, are leaving even though
they only returned to Israel in June after three years in New York. Third-
generation, university-educated Israelis, their grandparents were pioneers in
building the state.
"I feel betrayed," said Hila, 37, whose husband, Dror, is also 37. "I
don't want to raise my children in such a brutal society. ... My grandparents
had such high ideals. What has become of Israel makes me so sad and bitter."
