A three-year program costing $300,000,000, deigned to double the present population of Israel by the acquisition of several million dunams of land to provide settlement facilities for scores of thousands of immigrants, was outlined today at a press conference by Dr. Abraham Granovsky, world president of the Jewish National Fund.
Dr. Granovsky voiced the belief that “by the end of 1951 Israel will have a population of 1,500,000, provided our plans for an annual rate of immigration of 150,000 are carried out. The successful integration of so huge a tide of immigrants into the economic life of Israel is largely dependent on the financial support which the Jewish community in the United States must provide,” he said.
“Agricultural development in Israel, particularly in the Negev,” Dr. Granovsky declared, will not only “assure the Jewish state of a well-balanced economy, but will provide the food basket for Israel.” The J.N.F.’s plans for land amelioration which include vast irrigation and scientific farming schemes will, “both directly and indirectly, prove of great benefit to the whole Middle East,” he stated.
“Once full peace and good neighbor relations between Israel and the Arab states are established and I believe this will happen soon the peoples of the Arab countries will come to know of our land and faming achievements,” Dr. Granovsky pointed out. “This, in turn, will lead to the adoption of modern farming methods and a general raising of the standard of living in the Arab countries. It is just such a development which President Truman is so anxious to bring about.”
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.
