Israel Expects 120,000 Immigrants This Year; 40,000 from Rumania

Immigration plans call for the arrival in Israel of 120,000 immigrants this year, Eliahu Dobkin, Jewish Agency executive member, told the 11th annual Keren Hayesod national convention today. Over 180 delegates from all parts of Israel attended the parley, held in Mishamar Hasharon.

Mr. Dobkin revealed that among the 120,000 immigrants 40,000 will be from Rumania and the remaining thousands of Tripolitanian Jews who are leaving the country before it becomes an independent Arab nation on January 1, 1952.

Mr. Dobkin told the delegates that the last Zionist Congress had assigned 92 percent of the Jewish Agency’s budget to immigration, absorption and settlement activities. The Youth Aliyah budget had been raised by 20 percent to 3,500,000 pounds, he added.

The Keren Hayesod has raised about half of the Zionist budget this year, he reported, adding that the budget is approaching the unprecedented total of 52,000,000 pounds, Speaking of Agency housing projects, he said he hoped the Israel Government would contribute some 16,000,000 pounds toward this program which includes a planned 6,000 houses to be erected this year by Amidar, the Agency-sponsored housing corporation.

In an analysis of the type of immigrant arriving in Israel now, Mr. Dobkin revealed that before the outbreak of World War II some 18 percent of the immigrants were persons of means while the proportion of business men and capitalists arriving in the country currently is less than one-quarter of one percent. He also indicated that 120,000 persons had been added to the agricultural population of the country recently.