We’re leaving! Israel facing new exodus amid far-right government concerns

Hundreds of Israelis were able to meet “virtually” for the first time last week in a zoom call organised for people who want to leave the country in response to the results of the most recent elections.

The adherents of what has become known as “Plan B” — the answer to a perceived collapse of Israeli democracy — include the Israeli-American philanthropist and businessman Moti Kahana.

Last week Kahana posted on social media that “after years of smuggling Jews from war zones Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and Ukraine to Israel, I decided to help Israelis immigrate to the USA”.

Kahana, who has prospered since moving to America in 1991, now has a large farm in New Jersey. He and other business partners in the US have engaged an immigration lawyer.

The lawyer, he says, will help Israelis, particularly those in hi-tech start-up businesses, to begin working in the US — and living, initially, on his farm. He intends to turn part of his land into a hi-tech kibbutz, arguing that for many new start-up companies, America is their target market. He said his farm could accommodate an initial seven families.

He said: “I don’t want Israel to collapse, of course not, but if it does what will happen?” He has been advocating strongly for “Plan B” for the past three years, but believes now is the time to make advocacy concrete reality.

He posted on Twitter: “With such a government in Israel, the American government should let every Israeli who owns a company, or has a sought-after profession in the US such as doctor or pilot, immigrate to the US.”

On social media, under the heading “Leaving the country, together”, people are congregating in Whats App discussion groups exchanging information on America, Canada, Britain — there are 50 people in this group so far — Romania, Australia, Greece, Portugal, Italy, Poland, South America, New Zealand, and even Uganda and Ukraine.

The apparent convenor is a man called Yaniv Gorelik, who initially did not respond to inquiries from Jewish News. The daily message on each of the groups reads: “Hi guys, we decided to organise this group as an answer to what is happening in the country … the nature of the country changing for the worse and just the fact that life is not the same as it used to be.”

Not all  would-be emigrants are hi-tech entrepreneurs. Netta, a disabled woman in her late 30s, lives in the greater Tel Aviv area and exists on much-reduced social welfare benefits. She has a European as well as her Israeli passport but is unsure what her destination would be if she leaves.

She told JN she was “very afraid” of sweeping social changes promised by the far-right partners in Benjamin Netanyahu’s new coalition.

David Ditman, a retired electrical engineer from Petach Tikva said he was “very disappointed in Israel”, adding that the election results made him describe his country as “Isra-hell”. He added: “We came from Sodom and we are going back there.”

Independent journalist Orly Barlev described the current climate in Israel as “like a pot of water that is coming to the boil” and predicted many people would soon take to the streets in protest.

She was not among those bidding to leave, she said – “the main priority is to save our country. People are sitting on the edge of their seats to take action.

“Responsible politicians don’t want to sit [in government] with Netanyahu because he is an indicted defendant. So who is left? The extremists and religious politicians. And now, even people who voted for  Likud are asking what is going on?”

She acknowledged that those who were seeking to leave the country were looking around for “Plan B. But I think that Plan A is to fight.”