Intifada Success: Half of secular Jews ponder leaving Zionist entity

Al Wilayah
June 23, 2002

Zionist sources have expressed fears over the increasing number of immigrants leaving the Zionist entity as a recent opinion poll indicated that half of secular Jews were thinking of emigrating.

Lebanese newspaper ‘Asafeer’ quoted results of an opinion poll published in Hebrew daily ‘Ma’ariv’ as indicating that one out of two secular “Isr**lis” were thinking of leaving the Zionist entity one way or another.

The poll, conducted by the Zionist council in “Isr**l” last week, noted that 40% of those polled replied positively when asked if they had thought of immigrating outside “Isr**l” or known people who pondered the same idea while 60% responded in the negative”.

The poll revealed that 47% of seculars thought of immigration while 53% negated that idea while only 23% of the “religious” Jews replied “yes” that they had thought of emigration.

Another Hebrew daily ‘Yediot Ahronot’ quoted a Jewish demographic expert as saying that percentage of those immigrating outside the entity would surpass the percentage of those immigrating to it this year.

He told the same Zionist council that his expectations were based on figures recorded in the first four months of the current year.

The expert attributed this fact to “economic hardships” totally ignoring the security deterioration.