Approximately 43,000 immigrants left Israel in the course of the last two years, it was reported in the Israel Parliament today by Itzhak Raphael, head of the Jewish Agency’s immigration department. This number, he said, constitutes two-thirds of the total of immigration into the country during the same period.
Mr. Raphael asked Parliament for an urgent discussion of the subject. He in sisted that ways must be found to check the trend. “The bringing in of those who later leave the country costs us strenuous work and much money,” he argued.
Replying, Minister of Interior Israel Rokach stated that the picture was not as Mack as painted by Mr. Raphael. He disclosed that there was a proposal to grant passports only to those who had lived at least two years in Israel. There is also a proposal to make certain amendments to the “Law of Return,” he said.
The Minister of Interior emphasized that he is not worried about the number of people who left the country in view of the fact that re-emigration has not increased in the last ten months. He said that he knows of no country from where there is no re-emigration. He suggested that Mr. Raphael would have done better by speaking about increased immigration rather than complaining about re-emigration.
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