JERUSALEM, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Immigration of North American Jews to Israel has increased 33 percent compared with 2008, Nefesh b"Nefesh, an organization that assists immigrants, said.

The organization said 4,000 Jews from North America will have moved to Israel by the end of 2009, the most in a single year since 1973, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Danny Oberman, executive vice president for the organization's Israel branch, said the economic crisis pushed many to make the move to Israel this year, the newspaper said.

The global economic crisis has also caused hundreds of Palestinians, mainly from the Persian Gulf, to return to the West Bank. While no official figures have been made available, the International Monetary Fund intends to study the issue in the coming month, the Journal said.

The economy in the West Bank has grown 5 percent in 2009.

Bashar al-Masry, a Palestinian developer of the $800 million project to build Rawabi, a new Palestinian city north of Ramallah, said it appears the economic crisis has worked to the Palestinians' advantage, the Journal said. Masry was referring to the influx of Palestinians who returned to the West Bank and found employment.