Israel Gears up for Wave of Immigrants from War-Torn Georgia
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
By Julie Stahl
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) – Israel is gearing up to receive a wave of Jewish immigrants from war-torn Georgia, officials here said.
“Since last Friday night, with the eruption of battles in the South Ossetia region of Georgia, the Jewish Agency embarked on an extensive and immediate operation in Israel and in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, to render all the necessary assistance to the Georgian Jewish community,” said Jewish Agency Chairman Zeev Bielski.
That includes the accelerated handling of paperwork for those who want to immigrate as well as preparations here to absorb them, Bielski said in an open letter on Monday.
The Jewish Agency, a quasi-governmental organization, is responsible for immigration to Israel. Since before the founding of the State, the agency has sought to rescue Jews from life-threatening situations around the world and resettle them here.
According to Bielski, the Jewish Agency rescued a number of Georgian Jews at the beginning of the 1990s during the civil war in the Abkhazia region, bringing most of them to Israel.
According to Israeli law, every Jew throughout the world has a right to immigrate to the country. Israel has encouraged immigration for decades, partly as a way of boosting the country’s Jewish population. More than three million Jews have immigrated to Israel since the founding of the state.
“The return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel is an integral part of what Israel stands for,” says the Jewish Agency’s Web site. Between January and July 2008, 8,542 people arrived in Israel under the auspices of the Jewish Agency, a 16 percent decrease compared to the number that arrived in the same period last year.
Jewish Agency spokesman Michael Jankelowitz told CNSNews.com that some 25 Georgians are expected in Israel on Tuesday night, if there is enough room for them on the planes that are bringing Israeli citizens home.
Dozens of Georgians have applied to immigrate to Israel since fighting broke out on Friday, Jankelowitz said.
Since 1989, about two-thirds of the Georgian Jewish community – some 25,000 people – has immigrated to Israel and only about one-third — 12,000 – of the Jewish community was left behind, he said.
On Tuesday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said he had ordered an end to the military operation in Georgia, but reports from the region said the fighting has not ended.
Zvi Avisar, spokesman for Israel’s Immigration and Absorption minister, said that a let-up in hostilities probably wouldn’t have an impact on emigration from Georgia.
“The geo-political situation won’t change,” Avisar told CNSNews.com.
The pressure from Russia probably is going to continue, and it would more than likely have an impact on the socio-economic situation in general. It is easier for people to make a decision to come to Israel when they are affected in such a way, Avisar said.
According to Avisar, Israel is expecting two waves of immigration from Georgia.
The first will consist of those who have passports and visas and are able to leave Georgia within the next two weeks. Sixty people already have applied to come immediately, he said.
The second wave will take longer, even up to a year, as Georgian Jews work to get their travel documents in order. “We don’t know if it will be hundreds or dozens,” Avisar said.
One immigrant who arrived from Georgia in 1992 said the situation is difficult in Georgia right now. But it’s not clear how many Jewish people will want to leave.
The people still have hope now that the world will take Georgia’s side and force Russia to back down, she told CNSNews.com. So far, she added, it’s all talk.
Many Georgians say it’s clear that Russia had been planning this attack for some time, prompted by Georgia’s desire to become part of NATO and its friendship with America.
The U.S. has condemned the Russian bombing raids and called for an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia.
According to Avisar, the Jewish Agency plans to launch an information campaign in Georgia about the benefits offered to immigrants. Most of the Jewish community is based in Tbilisi.
Israel has always depended on immigration to boost its population and fuel its rise as a modern state.
In 1949, (a year after Israel’s founding) the Jewish Agency brought 239,000 Holocaust survivors here from Displaced Persons camps in Europe and detention camps on Cyprus.
During the first four years of its existence, Israel absorbed more than 700,000 new immigrants, including 3,800 from Yemen, 343,000 from Eastern Europe and North Africa, 110,000 from Iraq, 40,000 Jews from Turkey and 18,000 from Iran.
In 1991, more than 14,300 Ethiopian Jews were airlifted to Israel in just 36 hours in what was known as Operation Solomon. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain in about 1991, nearly one million Jews have immigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union.
Source: CNSNews
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