According to the agency charged with promoting the immigration of Jews to Israel explain that the Diaspora do not have much reason to leave their countries of origin to move to Israel. The agency has also added that Israel is starting to lose its appeal.
Currently, the Law of Return invoked by the Israeli government allows anybody who is Jewish or has a Jewish spouse, parent, or grandparent to be a citizen of Israel. According to Zeev Bielsky, the head of the Jewish agency, the flow of migrants have slowed down due to Russia’s economic boom.
Zeev Bielsky further adds that the French elections have played a major role as well. France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy has Jewish grandparents. That alone has seemed to make the Jewish population feel more secure in France.
The state of Israel thrives and survives on immigration.
Most of Israel’s citizens are from the families of former Diaspora Jews. They had returned to the land after feeling discrimination and persecution in both Europe and the Middle East. That eventually led to the founding of the state of Israel in 1948.
However, over a million Muslim and Christian Arabs do too have Israeli nationality. This is a sizeable proportion of the current population of seven million. Then there is the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.