The government may not be sending new immigrants to the administered territories, but financial incentives coupled with the housing crisis may have the same effect, according to Labor Party leader Shimon Peres and Haim Oron of Mapam.
They raised the issue in the Knesset on Wednesday, where four no-confidence motions were easily defeated by the Likud-led coalition.
But the subject is a delicate one, since the government has given assurances to the United States and the Soviet Union that Soviet Jewish immigrants arriving in Israel will not be directed to the territories.
Oron charged that settlement leaders are enticing young Israeli couples, pushed out of the housing market within the so-called Green Line by newly arrived Soviet olim, with far more attractive mortgages than are available inside the Green Line.
People who settle in the territories can receive an interest-free 30-year mortgage on a $40,000 home. The monthly payments do not exceed $125, regardless of the mortgagee’s financial status, the Mapam Knesset member said.
By contrast, home-buyers who live within the Green Line qualify for 20-year mortgages at best.
Yair Tsaban of Mapam said workers fear they will be laid off and replaced by Soviet immigrants getting subsidized salaries.
Peres suggested that a dialogue with the Palestinians might reduce the level of intifada violence and the costs of policing the territories for the benefit of the economy.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
