Reverse immigration eroding Israel

Hassan Tahsin (Saudi Gazette): 

The number of Jews leaving Israel is increasing while the number of those coming to Israel is decreasing. In 2012 the number of Jews migrating to Israel dropped by 2.5 percent compared to 2011, according to figures released by the Agence France Presse (AFP) quoting Israel’s Ministry of Immigrant Absorption.

According to Israel’s statistical centers, the reverse migration from the Land of Promise (Israel) began in 2004. In that year, more than 16,500 scientists, medical doctors, engineers and highly qualified Jews left Israel for the U.S. and other countries in Europe.

The year 2007 witnessed the most serious reverse migration. Jews from Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet republics left Israel in large numbers. According to Israel’s Interior Ministry, 775,000 Israelis applied to abandon their Israeli nationality in preparation for leaving Israel.

About 950,000 Russian and former Soviet Jews out of 1.25 million left Israel accompanied by a number of Christians. They lived in Israel for a decade from 1989 to 1999.

Quoting the results of a survey conducted in 1987, Israeli newspaper Maariv said about 26.14 percent of the surveyed people expressed their desire to leave Israel for the U.S. or any other rich European country after losing faith in Israel’s political leaders and their obscure and dangerous promises.

The Israeli institute which conducted the survey said it was mostly young men and women who were worried and wanted to leave Israel. The reverse migration from Israel peaked in 2010 and 2011 reaching an unprecedented number especially after the tumultuous changes in Tunisia and Egypt.

The results of the latest public opinion survey conducted by a group calling itself Herzl Youth showed that fear for Israel’s future increased by 71 percent among the youth after the toppling of the regime of President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt.

David Shahak, a 23-year-old Israeli said: “How can Israel live safely in the region after this popular tsunami in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen. The Arabs do not want to see us in the region. Our stupid leaders have squandered all the serious peace opportunities with the Arab people. A permanent peace can only be brokered between people not governments. For these reasons I have decided to migrate to the U.S. I will never come back to this inferno again.”

The Herzl Youth survey which covered about 3,000 young men and women in and outside Israel said about 58 percent of the younger Israeli generation wanted to migrate from Israel.