About Jewish Reverse Immigration

Prof. As’ad Abdul Rahman

Despite the very recent recurring calls by the Israeli Prime Minister and others for European Jews to migrate to Israel, a recent Facebook campaign on the internet spread like a wild fire “urging Israelis to immigrate to Berlin.” Naor Narkis, an Israeli living in Berlin expressed extreme astonishment at the popularity of the campaign he launched and explained in an interview that “Israeli émigré in Berlin are now living in the strongest, most prosperous, most affordable and safest country in Europe. Naturally they prefer Germany than living in Israel which has become a missile-stricken country.”

The Facebook campaign has inspired a band of singers called “Shamamel” to compose a song which is now ruling the air waves in Israel. It says:
“Everyone is asking for what purpose we stay here
We can always embark on the first plane out of here breathing with ease.
The answer to the question above is hard.
Our neighbor lives in Los Angeles peacefully without any regret.
Every Israeli emigre in Berlin tells and expound upon its beauty.
Berlin, O Berlin, I shall forget my hand if I forget you.
(Jerusalem was replaced with Berlin in this old Jewish pledge during prayer).
I shall come to you to smell the fragrance of the Euro, peace and light.
My grandparents did not come to Israel in search of Zionism, but came to flee from death.
Now they understand well that there is no life here in Israel.
We chose to flee from poverty and misery, now besides death.
We are running away not only to seek comfort, but keep our heads high above the raging water.
Even our father Israel (Jacob) had to flee to Egypt where the rent was two third cheaper and the salary was double.”

These are the words vibrating in the hearts of Jewish immigrants who came to Israel searching for ’Nirvana’, but found a Spartan state fighting wars, “till Kingdom come”. Thus, they not only reversed the Jewish words said during prayers, from “Next year in Jerusalem” to “Next year in Berlin”, but also by reverse immigration from Israel for good.

The Economist journal, in a recent report, also referred to another campaign offering professional help for Israelis wishing to leave Israel for good to European countries. It called the campaign “Ascent to Berlin” instead of “Ascent to Jerusalem”, the higher immigration, “Aliya”, to Israel. All the old Jewish slogans used by Zionism to lure Jews to come to Israel, “The Promise Land”, are being reversed with new ones urging Israelis to leave.

This Facebook Campaign garnered in four days more than one million visitors and the ‘Berlin ascenders’ on its pages “received 9300 applications requesting permission to migrate to Berlin.” Such a huge positive response forced them to contact Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany seeking work permits for the Israeli applicants. The same group revealed their intention to contact also the Spanish government to speed up the process of attaining Spanish citizenship for three million Sephardic Jews whose ancestors were forced into exile from Spain after the end of Arab rule of Andalusia in the 1490s.

The Israeli channel 10 revealed results of a recent poll which showed that half a million Israelis intend to emigrate from Israel because of the high cost of living. It showed that 50% of Israelis between the age of 25 and the age of 44 are thinking of leaving for good and “more than 26 thousand are actually leaving Israel every year for the last four years who are mostly young, very educated and secular, seeking work and better life in Germany, Australia and the United States of America”. This means that the tax base in Israel is leaving behind non taxpaying religious groups who refuse to serve in the military and are on welfare producing a dozen of children per family and studying only the Torah as a profession.

Another fact is the steady decline in the number of Jews adhering to the Jewish identity. Many refuse to nationally identify themselves as Jews instead of Israelis, Americans or French nationals. Turning Judaism into a nationality is putting Rabbis to rule a theocracy, thus, terminating the democracy of a civil non-religious state. Such a reality has now reversed the influx of Jews into Israel to Israelis leaving Israel for good. After all, Jews always claimed that they came to Israel to flee racism, persecution and religious intolerance, but found in Israel the very things they ran away from.

Another factor which is undermining Jewish immigration to Israel is that Jews around the world are enjoying the biggest prosperity in Jewish history in the countries they reside and without being subjected to religious persecution of old times. They no longer see Israel as a safe place, but on the contrary, Israel has become the most dangerous place for Jews with the never ending wars and no peace in sight. All secular Jews, whether in Israel or around the world, neither want to live in an apartheid/colonial state nor want to see Israel being fully transformed into one.

Deteriorating economy and theocracy in a situation of continued wars, taking upon itself the status of an occupying racist power ruled by the racist Talmud is not a state for Jews to be proud of. This racist state has the very seeds for self destruction like all apartheid regimes that fell apart. And that is not an opinion of an Arab observer, but an assessment held by most Western intelligence agencies, and – of course – increasing number of Jews whether they live in Israel or all over the world.