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Failure of Large-scale Jewish Immigration to Israel Has Caused Problems, Ebon Says

January 9, 1968
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Foreign Minister Abba Eban told a meeting of the Association of Latin American immigrants here last night that it was the failure of Diaspora Jewry to undertake the large-scale immigration that makes it impossible to give dispassionate consideration to the problems arising from last June’s war. Mr. Eban said that, if Israel’s population were four million or even three million, instead of two million, thinking on the problems posed by the war might have been much calmer.

The Foreign Minister made his remarks following an address by Moshe Kitron, chairman of the association, who criticized both Israel and the Diaspora on the matter of immigration. Immigration cannot be conditional on Israel’s being a replica of Western societies, he said. On the other hand, he charged that Israel was not an “absorption society” and often gave immigrants the feeling that they are forgotten.

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