Speech #870193908

Israel is in a good position to enter fruitful relations with new countries. because like them she has had to struggle for her independence against a colonial power and she faces the same problems of economic development and has made remarkable progress in solving these without going to extremes in state enterprise. Israel is a land of very limited natural resources and tremendous population problems. How she has managed to make the most of her natural resources and at the same time absorb a large scale flood of immigration is one A3527 of the heartening and inspiring social sagas of our time. The size of the immigration flow into Israel in proportion to the base population is very striking. In 1948 there were 650.000 Jews in Palestine. and in 1960 the population of Israel was 2.088.685. Of this present population 35 percent are native born. 36 percent have come from Europe.. America and Oceania. 17 percent are from Asia. and 12 percent are from Africa. The native born include the Arab refugees who present an extremely difficult problem in assimilation. As the national home of the Jews. an extremely diverse population makes up modern Israel. Full scale immigration policies have been pursued by the Israel Government and the Declaration of Independence stated that "the State of Israel will be open to the immigration of Jews from all countries of their dispersion." Immigrants are selected on the basis of their desire to come to Israel rather than on their ability to make a contribution to the economic wellbeing of the state. A large proportion of the immigrants have been children and needy aged people. Great numbers of them possessed no skills and no knowledge of machinery so urgently required by the new expansion program. It was necessary to begin at the most elementary level to introduce the immigrants to their new life in Israel. Many came from concentration camps and needed special. careful and sympathetic treatment before they could enter a new life. All had to be housed. Ultimately. enough housing was constructed that the immigrants were able to go straight to the villages or towns where they would live permanently rather than to a reception camp. Even language instruction was necessary for ability to speak a common tongue was essential to the process of incorporating the new members into the community. Intensive courses i n Hebrew were successfully designed to meet the language problem.