Israel runs mass aliyah simulation
Drill tested Israel’s readiness for a potential en masse ingathering of exiled Jews fleeing global antisemitism
Israel has tested its readiness for a potential mass influx of 45,000 Diaspora Jews fleeing a major antisemitic incident, carrying out a simulation to map out every aspect of absorbing large numbers of new citizens, from housing and medical care to evacuation routes and integration plans.
One hundred representatives from major government, nonprofit, and national organisations met at the National College for Israeli Resilience in Ramle on Thursday, planning and simulating the emergency immigration.
The Aliyah Ministry together with the National Emergency Authority simulated plans for 800 arrivals daily for two months, bringing around 10,000 people to Israel in a short space of time. The exercise has come against the backdrop of a surge in antisemitism worldwide since the Hamas atrocities of 7 October 2023.
Citing the example of the collapse of a country where there is a large community of Jews who will need help to reach Israel in order to save themselves, Immigration and Absorption Ministry Director General Avichai Kahana told Times of Israel: “This is an extreme scenario, but it’s not an apocalyptic one. It’s a scenario that could happen anytime in the near future, and we want to be prepared.”
TOI reported that, with potential triggers including a massive terror attack, political upheaval or widespread unrest, one team worked on a plan for a situation in which they had just 24 hours to organise flights out of an unnamed country for planeloads of fleeing Jews.
In 1991, Israel airlifted more than 14,000 people from Ethiopia in a day and a half and 75,000 immigrants arrived from Russia and Ukraine in the months after the war broke out in 2022.
The Israeli cabinet last week approved the largest Aliyah plan in decades to bring thousands of members of the Bnei Menashe tribe, who believe they are members of one of the ‘Lost Tribes’, from India to settle in northern Israel.
An estimated 54,000 new immigrants have arrived in Israel since 7 October 2023.
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