The cabinet was expected to approve on Sunday a plan to encourage European Jews to immigrate to Israel and a national project to promote aliyah worldwide that Immigration Absorption Minister Sofa Landver initiated along with the Jewish Agency for Israel and the World Zionist Organization. The government has decided to allot NIS 30 million ($8.7 million) in 2014 and 2015 to encourage aliyah. Landver explained that "in light of increasing anti-Semitic incidents in Europe, there is a real need to encourage aliyah from Europe." In May, a gunman opened fire at a Jewish museum in Brussels, killing three people, including two Israeli tourists. Two days later, two Jewish brothers were assaulted and badly beaten outside a synagogue in a Paris suburb. A study by Tel Aviv University researchers published in April demonstrated that anti-Semitism was on the rise in Europe. The study reported a total of 554 violent anti-Semitic acts in 2013, including attacks on people and vandalism against synagogues, cemeteries and other Jewish institutions. According to the study, anti-Semitic attitudes were becoming more acceptable, particularly among the youth of Europe, amid a rise in popularity of extremist parties in Hungary, Greece and elsewhere.
