Associated Press
Immigration to Israel has fallen sharply so far this year, and officials are considering what to do to reverse the trend, Israel's minister of immigrant absorption said Monday.
The minister, Tzipi Livni, admitted that immigration to Israel is in a "tailspin." She said her ministry needed to examine the attitudes of potential immigrants and find ways to make Israel more attractive to them.
A main factor depressing immigration figures is nearly three years of Palestinian-Israeli violence. Many potential immigrants have had second thoughts because of the frequent images of terror attacks inside Israel, and the unrest has contributed to a serious economic recession with high unemployment.
According to ministry figures, only 7,692 immigrants came to Israel during the first five months of the year.
Even if twice that many arrive in the next seven months, it would still be a sharp drop from the 35,168 and 44,633 that arrived in 2002 and 2001. During the peak immigration years of 1990 and 1991, almost 377,000 immigrants came to Israel, most from the former Soviet Union.
"It's impossible to remain indifferent to what's going on," Livni told The Associated Press. "I fully believe that immigration will define the strength of the state of Israel. We have to find out the reasons for what's happening and focus our resources to bring in more immigrants."
Jewish immigration to Israel is the cornerstone of Zionism, the Jewish national movement. About half the people living in Israel today were born abroad.
Livni, who belongs to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's hard-line Likud Party, sees a political side to increased immigration - an Israeli claim to parts of the West Bank and Gaza, which the Palestinians want for a state.
Demographers warn that at the present rate, Jews will become a minority in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza together in one or two decades.
"I want an Israel that is both Jewish and democratic both for now and the future," Livni said. "My work is intended to help bring it about."
Dovish opponents use the demographic argument to prove their point - that relinquishing control of territories where Palestinians live is in Israel's interest, to preserve the Jewish character of the state.
Mike Rosenberg, director of the Jewish Agency, the body responsible for bringing Jews to Israel, said that besides Israel's difficult economic and security situations, administrative measures, like cutting subsidies for immigrant housing loans, have cut into immigration.
"Newspapers in countries like Argentina gave great prominence to the mortgage cutbacks," he said.
Despite the domestic problems, Rosenberg believed that adverse conditions for Jews elsewhere in the world would push them toward Israel.
He noted perceptions of growing anti-Semitism in France and the uncertain economic situation in Argentina. Adding the potential of 1 million Jews in the countries of the former Soviet Union, he believed immigration could soon climb to 40,000 to 50,000 a year.
"There is still a very great reservoir of potential immigrants for Israel," he said. "Our job is to create the conditions to harness it."