WORLD : 12 Million Soviets Could Become Israelis, Former Dissident Says
As many as 12 million Soviet citizens could become Israelis under the Jewish state’s immigration laws, former Soviet Jewish dissident Natan Sharansky said today.
The figure is far above estimates of the Jewish population of the Soviet Union, but a 1970 amendment to the Israeli Law of Return extended the right to immigrate to Israel to non-Jewish spouses, children and grandchildren of Jews.
“Demographic experts say there may be 10 to 12 million,” Sharansky told a conference on the current influx of Soviet Jews.
“Of course 80% of these are not Jewish, and this is just a way to leave the Soviet Union and avoid civil war or whatever will happen,” said Sharansky, now an immigration activist.
Israel’s current population is around 4.5 million, including 3.7 million Jews.
More than 50,000 Soviet Jews arrived in Israel in the first half of 1990, and 1 million are forecast to move to Israel within five years.
Sharansky, who was released from a Soviet prison in exchange for a Russian spy in 1986, said about 30% of those arriving were not actually Jews.
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