Agence France Presse
May 3, 2001, Thursday 5:03 AM, Eastern Time
HEADLINE:
Israel aims for new immigration from South Africa,
Argentina, France
DATELINE: JERUSALEM, May 3
BODY: The Jewish Agency, the body charged with supervising immigration
to Israel, hopes the next wave of newcomers will be from South
America, Argentina and France, its president Salai Meridor said
Thursday.
"We are concentrating our action on encouraging immigration to Israel
by members of Jewish communities in developed western countries and
South America, notably Argentina, South Africa and France," he told
Israeli radio.
In the last 12 years, 900,000 immigrants came from the former Soviet
Union and 40,000 from Ethiopia, but "these reservoirs are beginning to
dry up," he said.
"We will consider ourselves satisified if 40,000 immigrants come from
the former Soviet Union this year,"he said.
But the Jewish communities of Argentina and South Africa --
respectively 200,000 and 80,000-strong -- were likely sources because
of the growing economic problems there, while the 700,000 Jews of
France were, he said, "concerned by the rise of anti-semitism."
According to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 5.2 million Jews live
in Israel, equivalent to 38 percent of the worldwide Jewish population
and 81 percent of the Israeli population. There are six million Jews
in the United States.
Last month Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in an interview
withe Jerusalem Post, "We need to bring another million Jews here,
that needs to be a top priority of all governments."
"There are half a million Jews in Latin America, many of them in
distress now, who need to be taken out of there", Sharon said.
However, he made no mention of the Jewish community in the United
States, the largest in the world.
