Standing Room Only

The free ingathering of Jews from everywhere is a proposition basic to the heart and soul of Israel. But last week through Jerusalem's streets marched hundreds of dark-skinned Jews from North Africa, solemnly brandishing banners that read, "Oh, Lord, Save Thy People, Remnant of Israel." Among the onlookers, one expressed what many felt: "It is bad enough that Jews should be begging their own institutions for action. It's even worse that we don't all feel like joining in."

There are half a million Jews in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, and no one knows whether or when they will be caught up in the flare of violence in North Africa. Even before last week's rioting, 80,000 North African Jews had applied for free transportation to Israel, but last week the Jewish Agency's Immigration Committee set the country's "absorptive capacity" for this year at 45,000, and doubted that it could scrape together enough money to transport even that many. Israel cannot absorb large numbers of newcomers without grave risk to its burdened economy. No longer are there abandoned Arab villages to be filled, no longer is there fertile land, once worked by the Arabs, to be brought to plow; there remain only the harsh lands of the desert and the stony hills of Galilee. Last week Premier Moshe Sharett warned against "ill-considered alarmism" over the Jews in North Africa, and the government made it plain that only in case of actual persecution of Jews would Israel's doors be thrown wide open.

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