Minister of the Interior Israel Bar Yehuda has appointed a special committee to study the reasons motivating Jews to emigrate from Israel to overseas lands, it was disclosed today. The committee was also charged with the task of making recommendations for the elimination of the conditions leading to emigration.
In the ten years of Israel’s existence, about 63,000 Jews emigrated legally. Several thousand more, who left Israel as tourists, have not returned to Israel and have presumably settled overseas. Since almost a million immigrants arrived in the country during the same period, the emigration amounts to about seven to eight percent, which is regarded as much lower than the customary figure for countries of mass immigration.
Israel, however, does not consider the arrival of newcomers immigration so much as a return to the homeland and therefore considers the percentage of emigration to high.
The investigating committee will ask all applicants for emigration visas to indicate the reasons why they wish to leave Israel, undertaking to keep this information confidential.
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