WORLD : Israel Quadruples Immigrant Aid
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JERUSALEM — Israel is planning to spend almost $6.5 billion on Soviet immigrants next year, nearly four times the 1990 figure and probably ousting defense from its top spot for the first time.
Treasury officials said today that the draft budget, being presented by the Finance Ministry to the Cabinet on Sunday, will total $35 billion for the year starting April 1.
About 300,000 Soviet immigrants are expected in Israel next year. This and the Persian Gulf crisis have determined the budget’s two largest items excluding debt service.
“We have never had such challenges as the absorption of so many immigrants combined with a military threat like that posed by the gulf crisis. The government will have to make some hard decisions,” said a senior Treasury official.
The Treasury plans to spend the $6.5 billion mainly to ease a housing shortage and create thousands of jobs for the immigrants, mostly Soviet Jews.
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