Minister Landver. Points finger at media
Photo: Guy Assayag
MK Michaeli. 'Present figures about Arab violence'
Photo: Gil Yohanan
MK suggests Arabs more violent than Russian olim
Knesset committee discusses Israeli society's image of former Soviet Union immigrants. Minister Landver: People drank vodka here even before aliyah. Yisrael Beiteinu MK Michaeli: Most violence comes from Arab sector
The Knesset's Committee for Immigration Absorption on Monday discussed the Israeli society's image of immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Apart for Knesset Member Zevulun Orlev (Habayit Hayehudi),
the meeting was only attended by MKs who are new and veteran immigrants.
"What, there was not mafia here before? There were no prostitutes and people didn't drink vodka?" she wondered.
Immigrant Absorption Minister Sofa Landver, who made aliyah about 30 years ago, said during the discussion that all the phenomena attributed to "Russians" by the Israeli society existed even before the major wave of aliyah.
Violence
Raanan Ben-Zur
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"The State must recognize everything it got from the immigration, all the doctors, IDF soldiers, engineers," Landver said, pointing a finger at the media. "Enough, I demand that the media calm down, and if not, we must enact a law against this phenomenon."
MK Yulia Shamalov Berkovich (Kadima) said during the discussion that one in five IDF troops is a former Soviet Union immigrant, as is one in six combat soldiers.
MK Anastassia Michaeli (Yisrael Beiteinu) tried to divert the attention to violent incidents in a different sector. She wondered why Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch had not attended the discussion or sent a representative to present figures showing that "most violence comes from Israel's Arabs".
"Why isn’t this reported by the media?" she asked.
It should be noted that Aharonovitch recently addressed the problem of weapons use within the Arab sector, saying there has been an increase by tens of percentage points in shootings, arson and planting explosives.
"There are a lot of illegal and expired legal weapons in the non-Jewish sector. The time has come for this party to end and for a drastic reduction," said the minister.
MK Marina Solodkin (Kadima) protested the education ministry's failure to attend the hearing. She went on to slam the legal system. "Many immigrants from the USSR are sitting in jail even though they are innocent," she argued.
MK Alex Miller (Yisrael Beiteinu) suggested that the immigrant absorption minister influence the government and appoint a ministerial committee to come up with solutions for the youth's free time.
