A small group of Jerusalem homeless camped Monday on the grounds of the U.S. Consulate in East Jerusalem, declaring they would apply for refugee status in the United States because they cannot live normal lives in their own country.
American officials distributed alien immigration application forms.
One woman said she would rather live on the streets of New York than be without a home in Israel.
Although the 20-odd demonstrators were only a handful, they represented a growing number of Israelis affected by the nation’s housing crisis.
They derived little comfort from Sunday’s meeting of the so-called Aliyah Cabinet, the ministerial committee directly concerned with immigration and absorption, which includes housing.
Absorption Minister Yitzhak Peretz was pessimistic when he emerged from the meeting.
“Many immigrants will come in the near future,” he said, but “regardless of our wishes, we shall not be able to supply them all with housing.”
The Israel Defense Force, meanwhile, offered 5,000 housing units in recreation camps used by military personnel and in regular military camps that are not classified secret.
Maj. Gen. Danny Yatom, head of the IDF’s Planning Division, told the Cabinet the army could immediately absorb 700 families and 2,500 single people.
Low-income Israelis, especially young couples, arc competing for scarce housing with newly arrived immigrants, mainly from the Soviet Union.
Hundreds of these new homeless are now living in tent cities all over the country.
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