Will Young Jews Leave Israel because of Netanyahu's Coronavirus Depression?
MIDDLE EAST MONITOR
08/13/2020
0SHARES
By Nabil Al-Sahli | -
An article in Haaretz last week highlighted the possibility of young
Israelis emigrating [because of COVID-19], which brought Israel's obsession
with demography to the forefront of the agenda yet again. More than 70 years
since Israel was established in Palestine, its leaders, political parties
and strategists are still trying to persuade Jews from around the world to
migrate to the "Jewish state" in order to achieve demographic supremacy over
the indigenous Arabs. They also need the skills that such migrants might
have. Jewish immigrants are the lifeblood of the colonial state and they
enter the country at the expense of the Palestinian people and their
homeland.
Researchers agree that there are reasons for the decline in Jewish
immigration, not least the fact that they feel secure in their home
countries and the attractions that Israel has to offer, especially the
economic benefits, are not so great. Conferences in Israel between 2000 and
2019 urged decision-makers to prioritise Jewish immigration, which was
falling, while the Palestinian population witnessed high growth rates inside
Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza
Strip.
The focus has switched to attracting Jews from India and Argentina over the
past two decades, following the decline of immigrants from highly developed
countries such as the US, Canada, France and Britain, for example. A
self-declared "Jewish state" does, after all, need Jewish citizens.
The Zionist movement was able to attract about 650,000 Jewish immigrants up
to May 1948, when the state was established. Successive Israeli governments
have worked hard to attract Jewish immigrants, and today the population
stands at around 9.2 million people, 74 per cent of whom are Jews.
The government does not expect to see immigration increasing over the next
decade, and coupled with the apparent willingness of young Israeli Jews to
emigrate this is a major concern for the authorities. The government's
response to the coronavirus pandemic and rising unemployment isn't helping
matters in this respect.
The majority of the world's Jews are citizens of the US and Europe, where
development indicators are higher than those in Israel, and so there are no
economic or other factors pushing Jews to leave their countries of origin
and move to the "Jewish state".
This is why, I believe, the government of Benjamin Netanyahu last year
introduced the "Jewish Nation-State Law", not only to attract Jewish
immigrants, but also to ensure that the "Jewish" nature of the colonial
state is protected by law against the increasing Palestinian Arab
population. Derogatory comments about the latter have included claims that
this is a "demographic time bomb" for Israel.
In the meantime, the state continues with its efforts to attract Jewish
immigrants. South African and Ethiopian Jews are being targeted, as well as
those from Argentina and India. Will this be enough to "save" Israel from
the indigenous Arab population becoming the majority in the "Jewish state"?
Only time will tell. Meanwhile, the case for a single democratic state
between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea, with equal rights for
all citizens, gets stronger by the day.
Nabil Sahli is a Palestinian writer resident in the Netherlands.
This article first appeared in Arabic in