Immigrants May Depart En Masse, Bank of Israel Governor Warns

Nearly 400,000 Israelis will soon be jobless and 200,000 immigrants will leave the country unless drastic economic measures are taken swiftly, Michael Bruno, governor of the Bank of Israel, warned in a report issued Tuesday.

The report published by Israel’s central bank is the harshest assessment of unemployment in Israel made public to date and has sent shock waves throughout the country.

But economists and policy-makers are still arguing over what measures to take to prevent skyrocketing unemployment and a massive departure of new immigrants.

Bruno has called for further cuts in the minimum wage, abolition of cost-of-living allowances, new incentives for employers and increased investments in infrastructure.

Finance Minister Yitzhak Moda’i, who initially was working with Bruno on an economic recovery plan, has changed his mind and is now devising a program of his own.

Concerned about the erosion of aliyah, he is proposing that the government underwrite jobs for 50,000 new immigrants, who would not be employed in the public sector.

One idea Moda’i has floated is establishment of a giant investment company to finance high-risk economic ventures.

Moda’i’s plans came under fire Monday in the Knesset Finance Committee, which would eventually have to approve them.

But the finance minister is determined to seek Cabinet endorsement of his plan within two weeks.

The news media, meanwhile, are continuing to publicize the financial plight of Soviet olim.

Ma’ariv published two stories Tuesday. According to one, new immigrants in Ramat Gan depend on a community soup kitchen for their only hot meal of the day.

The second story referred to a 52-year-old physicist from the Soviet Union whose family of three children subsists on lunches of cabbage soup and bread.