Some 17 per cent of the Jewish immigrants who came to Israel from the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s have since left, official data by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) revealed yesterday.

The bureau explained that the emigrants left due to the “inevitability of the state’s economic circumstances”.

Between 1990 and 1996, some 650,000 immigrants moved to Israel from Russia, 185,000 of whom were under 20 years old. CBS revealed that 32,000 of them (17.3 per cent) no longer live in Israel.

Furthermore, the Russian-speaking Jews who are “at the peak of their creative powers” are more inclined to leave than other immigrant groups, according to the CBS.

Speaking in an interview with Quds Press, Saleh Lutfi, a Palestinian expert on the Jewish issue, said that the main reason behind the Russians’ relocation is Israel’s current tough economic conditions as well as the security instability resulted from the various Palestinian uprisings that have been taking place.

Lutfi explained that the Russian immigrants either head back to their homeland or seek new pastures in other Western countries.

According to a report published by Haaretz in April, most of the Russian Jews who reside in Israel have not sold their properties in Moscow, St. Petersburg or other Russian cities. Many have also continued running businesses in Russia.