Over 20k immigrants to Israel since Ukraine war began; almost half from Russia

ZVIKA KLEIN

The war between Russia and Ukraine is sending out refugees from both sides

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Ukrainian Jews return to Israel. /  (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)

Since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war, more than twenty-one thousand Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian individuals; eligible for the Israeli Law of Return have entered Israel and most of them are already Israeli citizens.

Expectations versus reality

Yet even though there were expectations of hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Ukraine – almost half of the immigrants are from Russia. 21,404 entitled to the Right of Return have arrived in Israel since the Russian-Ukraine broke out in February, most of them have already officially become Israeli citizens – according to data from the Ministry of Aliyah and Absorption on Tuesday.

According to the ministry, 1,153 of those who are entitled to make aliyah have still not finished their immigration process. 10,019 of the immigrants are from Ukraine, 9,777 are from Russia and 455 made aliyah from Belarus. On Monday, 211 new immigrants arrived in Israel from these countries.

REFUGEES FROM Ukraine and Russia board their aliyah flight at Chisinau Airport. (credit: BRIAN SCHRAUGER)

The Jerusalem Post spoke at the beginning of the week to about a dozen new immigrants from Russia who have arrived in Israel in the past few months and left for different reasons. Most of them have already returned to the Jewish state and most of the others intend to return in the near future.

“I don’t know any recent immigrants from Russia who have returned to Russia with no future plans to come back to Israel,” said Alex, a Russian Jew who made aliyah recently from Moscow. “Most of the people returned to Russia for some time because the decision to come to Israel was urgent and not well-prepared.”

These olim (new immigrants) feel the need to speak up as a result of public discussion in Israel after the Post’s inquiry a month ago claiming that some 1,800 of the Russian Jews who immigrated to Israel since the war began have returned to Russia with their new Israeli passports. Alex and the rest of the new immigrants who spoke to the Post have asked for their names not to be revealed because they are afraid of being threatened by the Russian regime.