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Add an EventImmigration to Israel Lowest in 18 Years
According to a report issued by Edery's ministry on Sunday, 19,700 Jews immigrated to Israel in 2007, the lowest number since 1989.
The 2007 Jewish immigrants are also down by six percent from that of 2006.
The ministry's statistics referred to a 15 percent decline in the number of immigrants from former Soviet Union states, which used to be the largest Jewish immigration bloc followed by Ethiopia.
One-third of the immigrants arrived in Israel in 2007 were from former Soviet states, 19 percent came from Ethiopia, 15 percent from North America and France, while the rest came from Western Europe and Central and Southern America.
Women made up 52 percent of the total number of immigrants. About 50 of the new immigrants were nonagenarians.
Israel's so-called Law of Return allows anyone who is Jewish or has a Jewish spouse, a Jewish parent or a Jewish grandparent, to obtain Israeli citizenship.
Jews constitute 76 percent of Israel's population of some seven million people, while Arabs make up nearly a fifth, according to 2006 estimates.
About half the people living in Israel today were born abroad.
Israeli officials fear that the growing birth rate among its Arab citizens would change the demography of Israel and have recently called for recognizing Israel as a Jewish state.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said such a recognition is a starting point for all negotiations with the Palestinians.
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The agency to promote Jewish migration to Israel said the Diaspora had less reason to leave countries of origin, while Israel was losing its appeal.
Israel's Law of Return allows anyone who is Jewish or has a Jewish spouse, parent or grandparent to be a citizen.
Immigration is an important factor in Israel's survival as a Jewish state.
The head of the Jewish Agency, Zeev Bielsky, said the economic boom in Russia had slowed the flow of migrants.
He also said the French elections, won by Nicolas Sarkozy - one of whose grandparents was Jewish, had made Jews feel more secure in France.
Most Israeli citizens are from families of former Diaspora Jews who returned to the land of their forefathers in the 20th Century, fleeing discrimination and persecution in Europe and the Middle East to the Jewish state which was founded in 1948.
But more than one million Muslim and Christian Arabs also have Israeli nationality, a sizeable and growing proportion of Israel's population of seven million.
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