The Israeli Cabinet on Wednesday approved a plan calling for new Olim to comprise no less than 3% of state workers over the next seven years.
“Important news for immigrants and another step [towards] the goal of encouraging immigration to Israel,” said Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer in response to the measure.
The decision is the latest in a series of government efforts to encourage more immigration to the State of Israel.
In March, the Israeli health and aliyah and integration ministries, in partnership with Nefesh B’Nefesh, launched the International Medical Aliyah Program. The multi-year initiative aims to streamline the Aliyah process for medical professionals.
As part of the program, the first European “MedEx” event was held on March 31 in Paris.
Aliyah to Israel has been surging since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack. According to Sofer, some 6,500 people have made Aliyah to Israel since the massacre, and there has been a significant increase in immigration applications from Western countries, including France, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.
“There are those who sought to uproot us from our land and they will see Aliyah. At the end of the day, Israel is the national homeland of the Jewish people,” Sofer told JNS.
Since the start of the war, there has been a 300% increase in Aliyah applications from France, a 150% jump from Canada, a 100% rise from the United States and a 40% increase from the United Kingdom.
Among the more than 6,000 new immigrants that have arrived in the country since the outbreak of the war are youths who came to serve in the Israel Defense Forces, as well as the parents of slain soldiers.
The Aliyah and Integration Ministry has launched a 170 million shekel ($46.4 million) plan to facilitate their integration. The project, which is being implemented in cooperation with the Finance Ministry, will offer additional support for immigrant housing, especially in the Negev and the Galilee, as well as university stipends and the opportunity to study in Hebrew for their first year.
“There is a lot of ‘home’ in the plan,” said Sofer.
{Matzav.com}