Arab countries, fearful of massive Jewish immigration to Israel, may ask the governments of Eastern Europe to curtail it, Hadashot reported Tuesday.
The newspaper said the Arab foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting on the issue at Arab League headquarters next month.
King Hussein of Jordan has warned that the flood of immigrants now pouring into Israel from the Soviet Union poses a grave danger to the entire Arab world and Jordan, in particular.
According to Hussein, Israel might force Palestinians out of the administered territories to settle Jewish immigrants.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir appeared to many to lend credence to such fears, when he told a group of Likud supporters on Jan. 14 that mass immigration would lead to a “bigger Israel.”
The U.S. State Department said such remarks “were not helpful.”
Shamir later denied he was suggesting Israeli expansionism.
Hadashot quoted a report in the Jordanian newspaper Akhbar al-Asboua that Jordan has approached East European countries about Jewish immigration.
Arab diplomatic sources, meanwhile, do not dismiss the possibility that a high-ranking Arab delegation will go to Moscow to present the Arab point of view on the subject.
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