Nearly 4,000 Soviet Jews are living on land Israel seized from Jordan in 1967, despite Israeli statements that the Soviet Jewish presence on occupied territory is minuscule.
Still, a survey finished this week indicated the scope of immigration to the occupied West Bank and Arab east Jerusalem is far short of the mass influx feared by Arab states.Movement to those areas constitutes only a small percentage of the 51,700 Jews who have arrived since the Soviet Union liberalized its emigration policies in the spring of 1989.
The Israeli government said just 318 Soviet immigrants have moved into the West Bank, seized from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war.
But the survey by The Associated Press indicated that in addition to those on the West Bank, more than 3,400 Soviets have moved to five suburbs of Arab east Jerusalem since 1989.
Although Israel took east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 war, it annexed it and does not consider the suburbs occupied territory.
The issue of settling Soviet Jews on land captured in the 1967 war has become critical to the future flow of immigrants, projected to reach 20,000 a month this year.