Israel seeks to boost Jewish population

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B"H

A lot of us would move there if we knew:

1. we wouldn't be taxed to death
2. we wouldn't be subjected to politically/religiously biased justice
3. we have freedom of expression
4. we have even the smallest possibility of employment
5. Olmert wasn't a traitor who wanted to destroy Israel.

M
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http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j-nYmdGiZiBHZhKDWPZBPWzvQi5A

ASHDOD, Israel (AFP) — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert urged Jews worldwide to migrate on Tuesday as his government unveiled new incentives to woo back expats and reverse declining immigration.

"Come and join us here because it's the best place to live," Olmert told the opening of an immigration conference in the southern city of Ashdod.

Under a new campaign for 2008, the immigration and absorption ministry said it was looking to repatriate 15,000 Israelis living abroad and bring in 20,000 new Jewish immigrants next year.

More than half a million Israelis live abroad. The ministry said it would offer a series of cash incentives and tax breaks to encourage them back.

"These Israelis won't have the difficulties facing new immigrants in integrating. We should use economic arguments to encourage them to return," Immigrant Absorption Minister Yaacov Edri told AFP at the conference.

"We seem to be going in the right direction. I hope aliya (immigration) statistics will double in 2008," he said.

The rate of immigration is set to fall this year to the lowest level since 1988, with only 14,843 new immigrants since January 2007 compared to 19,624 in 2006, according to ministry statistics.

The ministry also advocates simplified conversion procedures. Half of the estimated 300,000 immigrants from the former Soviet Union are not considered Jewish in the eyes of the country's Orthodox Rabbinate.

Under Israel's "law of return," anyone who is Jewish or has a Jewish parent, grandparent or spouse, or is the spouse of someone with such a Jewish relative provided he did not voluntarily convert from Judaism, can settle in Israel.

Of the 7.1-million-strong population of Israel, 76 percent is Jewish and 20 percent Arab.