Approximately 38,000 of the 750,000 Jews who entered Israel since the state was established in 1948 have subsequently left the country, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry announced last night. He said this amounted to a re-emigration rate of about five percent, as compared with a “normal” re-emigration rate of ten to 12 percent for other countries.
The spokesman asserted that the bulk of the people who left Israel came there only to obtain an Israeli passport which would enable them to go to another country. He charged that it was such emigrants who “besmirched” Israel’s name and described conditions in the Jewish State in the “blackest colors” in order to justify their leaving and their having “abused the Israel passport hospitality.”
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.