Up to 1,000 immigrants a day could be flown to Israel from the Soviet Union, as soon as the two countries ratify an agreement just reached between their respective national airlines, according to Uri Gordon, head of the Jewish Agency’s Immigration and Absorption Department.
Gordon, speaking Monday at a meeting of the World Zionist Organization Executive, said Israel is capable of receiving that large a number.
He said El Al and the Soviet air carrier Aeroflot have agreed on direct flights between Moscow or Leningrad and Tel Aviv. The flights are expected to start next month on a weekly basis, but could be increased to daily flights if the traffic warrants.
Israel is anticipating an upsurge of immigration from several countries, though mainly from the Soviet Union.
A total of 11,191 Jews left the Soviet Union in November, of whom 1,963, or 17.3 percent, went to Israel.
Those were the final figures released Tuesday in New York by the National Conference on Soviet Jewry. They are a shade higher than the preliminary figures the organization put out Dec. 3 in Malta, where it was monitoring the Bush-Gorbachev summit conference.
According to the National Conference, 62,527 Jews have left the Soviet Union this year, the highest number for any year since its Soviet Jewry Research Bureau began tabulating emigration statistics in 1968. The last previous high was 51,320 in 1979.
REPORTS OF POGROMS IN SOVIET ASIA
Gordon reported that since the start of this year, the Jewish Agency has processed invitations for 364,000 Jews in the USSR. Soviet Jews must have an invitation from “relatives” in Israel to apply for an emigration permit.
Simcha Dinitz, chairman of the WZO and Jewish Agency Executives, told the meeting that in issuing invitations, Israel will give priority to Jews in the Soviet Asian republics, where there have been disturbing reports of ethnic violence and anti-Semitic outbursts.
Dinitz said the Jewish Agency has no information to confirm reports of anti-Jewish riots in Tashkent and Bukhara. The reports came from Jews who had recently emigrated from or returned from visiting the Soviet republic of Uzbekistan.
Dinitz said anti-Semitism is rife in the region because of ethnic strife and the growing influence of Islamic fundamentalists.
Gordon told the meeting that Israel is also expecting immigrants from Argentina, Ethiopia, France, Romania and the United States. He said he expects more than 20,000 immigrants by the end of the year, half from the Soviet Union.
About 25 percent of the newcomers will be housed in absorption centers, but the rest will be go through the “direct absorption” system, Gordon said. He cautioned, however, that there is a shortage of apartments in the country.
Dinitz disclosed that the Jewish Agency has asked the Soviets for permission to have its representatives work in the Soviet Union, to assist prospective immigrants before they leave. He said the request was made recently to the head of the Soviet consular delegation in Tel Aviv.
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