The Cabinet appointed Arye Eliav. a member of the Knesset (Parliament), to the post of Deputy Minister of Absorption today as plans went ahead to organize the new ministry that will take over responsibility for the absorption of immigrants. At the request of Deputy Prime Minister Yigal Allon, who holds the new portfolio, the Cabinet directed other Ministries to appoint liaison officers to the Ministry of Absorption. Those involved are the ministries of defense, health, education and culture, agriculture, trade and industry, special welfare, labor, interior, tourism and the treasury.
Mr. Eliav who is in his late forties, has held several posts related to the absorption of immigrants and the development of new areas for their settlement. He was regional coordinator of the Lakhish development area and was later director of an Israeli team that reclaimed the region of Kasvin in Iran to make it suitable for agricultural settlement. He also served as Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry.
Meanwhile, discussions continued in a joint Government-Jewish Agency committee on the division of functions between the new ministry and the Jewish Agency which was hitherto responsible for immigrant absorption. Matters still to be worked out include shifts in personnel that have to be made in line with the Cabinet’s decision that absorption is to be taken over by the Government. No definite plan of operations has been worked out yet for the new ministry but it is known that the Jewish Agency will continue to hold responsibility for the absorption of needy immigrants and refugees.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
