50,000 disappointed Russian immigrants to Israel return home

50,000 disappointed Russian immigrants to Israel return home
Jan 8, 2004, 16:15

Occupied Jerusalem - More than 50,000 Russian immigrants to Israel have returned home to Russia, having been disappointed by the quality of life in Israel, the Israeli Hebrew newspaper Yedeot Ahranot reported Thursday.

The paper indicated that the collective exodus to motherland Russia was part of a trend stemming from the immigrants’ inability to integrate into the Israeli society.

The paper also pointed out that the returning immigrants were attracted improving economic situation in Russia by reforms introduced by President Vladimir Putin.

It is believed that hundreds of thousands of Russians who immigrated to Israel after the collapse of the Soviet Union did so for purely economic (not ideological) reasons.

A few weeks ago, an Israeli demographer opined that more than half of the Russian-speaking people who immigrated to Israel after 1991 were actually non-Jews.

Israel, which considers itself the homeland of all followers of the Jewish faith, strives to bring in Jewish immigrants to arrogate more land from the native Palestinian population.

The Palestinian intifada or uprising, which broke out in September 2000, coupled with an unprecedented economic crisis, has forced up to 16% of Israel’s Jewish population to immigrate, mainly to North America and Australia.

http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/am/publish/article_4048.shtml