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Time and distance shift Israeli migrant attitudes

By Hagar Cohen - posted Thursday, 30 June 2005


The crowds at Ben Gurion Airport's departure lounge are worrying some people in Israel. Everyone seems to be leaving. Teary mums farewell newly released soldiers heading off on the backpacker trail to India or Thailand, lovers break up as one heads for greener economic pastures on a “temporary” journey that might last forever.

Israeli citizen Ilana Burstein, 25, went backpacking in Australia three years ago. She is now studying business at Sydney's University of Technology, and a temporary resident in Australia. “I wasn’t satisfied with my life in Israel and decided to broaden my horizons and travel … unconsciously I stayed to find a better life.”

Many Israelis like Burstein are imigrating. Hebrew can be heard increasingly in the streets of Los Angeles, Berlin, Sydney and Melbourne. But sometimes Israeli migrants find they don’t fit in with local Jewish communities, whose long distance patriotism is at odds with the immigrants’ own experience.

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People searching for individual fulfilment and a more normal life are not the image of present-day Israelis we see in the media. The image we see is one of militant nationalists protesting against the imminent evacuation from the Gaza Strip, or of course soldiers.

Jewish immigration to the region now known as Israel increased during World War II because of the persecution of Jews in Europe. There were constant clashes between the local Palestinian population and the Jewish community. Since the declaration of the state of Israel in 1948 the two communities created a battleground that attracted worldwide attention. Israel's ongoing commitment to accepting Jews from the diaspora has broadened the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Roi Smith, 28, came to Australia with his family 13 years ago, from the northern Israeli city of Haifa. Life in Israel has now become a distant memory, but he still recalls a vibrant city which accommodated both Muslims and Jews. Haifa is one of the few cities in Israel where the two religious groups manage to live together in relative harmony.

While he identifies as an Israeli, Smith keeps himself distanced from the realities in Israel. “It’s who I am, Israeli, but never emotionally involved with Israeli affairs, I wouldn’t go into the army either,” he explains. His childhood friends from Israel had a turbulent time while serving in the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). One claimed he was suicidal. Another joined the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Smith’s says his friends' experiences led him to his decision to stay detached. “The army brought those problems to the surface, I’m sure … Here it’s always “she’ll be right mate”. It’s no wonder when front page news is about koalas stuck up a tree!”

Living in a country 351 times the size of Israel can affect the way in which Australian-resident Israelis view the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to University of Western Sydney PhD student Barbara Bloch. She surveyed a number of Israeli immigrants for her thesis, Unsettling Zionism. A number of them had been quite strong Zionists when in Israel, but found their perception of the conflict changed once they moved to Australia. “Here they become critical," she says, "probably on the far end of critical”.

Ilana Burstein comes from a family with a long tradition of supporting the Israeli conservative party, Likud. She describes her family as “radical” in their opinions. She now differentiates herself from her family, seeing her political views as “leaning towards the centre”.

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In Israel, the ongoing conflict and the loss of hope for a resolution left Burstein with a sense of despair. She had always believed that Israel should fight against all of those who oppose Zionist ideology or challenge the current borders in order to accommodate two nations - Israel and Palestine. But today the concept of two states makes more sense to her.

Barbara Bloch thinks perspective shifts are inevitable, and part of the adjustment to a new culture. She argues that living outside a familiar cultural zone can make people see things with more distance, and give them more access to critical views. This has been especially so since the beginning of the second Intifada, when more pro-Palestinian news became available in the mainstream media.

Yonit Oakley, 29, a Sydney-based company director, immigrated to Australia in 1998. She says living in Australia gave her a more mature perspective on the conflict. The everyday reality of life in her hometown, the southern Israeli city of Yavne’, made it harder for her to consider the views of her Palestinian neighbours. “When I was there, as much as I wanted the Palestinians to have a country of their own I couldn’t emotionally remove myself from what happened to Israelis, and the life under fear … especially when you watch television news 24-7, it’s in your face,” she recalls.

“Living here you get a better perspective because you’re not scared, therefore you can feel more for the other side, you can look at it with more logic, less emotions … Now that I have tasted life without war, I don’t understand the concept of giving up your life for a piece of land.”

From behind the counter of a furniture shop in inner-Sydney Camperdown, Roi Smith doesn’t understand the concept either. He strongly objects to the views of Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, and sees the consequences of their expansion as both oppressing Palestinians and hampering progress toward peace. “Settlers are not right in the head, they don’t seem like nice normal people to me … I’d give all the (conquered) territories back”.

From her lengthy research into the Jewish community in Australia, and on Israeli-Australians now distanced from the conflict, Barbara Bloch argues that those changes are not easy. “To grow up in a place that has a pretty strong ideological kind of focus, to then step away from that and to criticise, I think could be hard.”

The difficulties Israelis encounter once they move towards different opinions are complex, and they are sometimes in conflict with their relatives and friends who still live in Israel. Roi Smith looks back on his life in Israel and says that in the years since he left, the situation worsened. Being a “leftie” in Israel could now be viewed to some of the Israeli population as traitorous.

Ilana Burstein is certainly aware of this attitude, especially amongst her close family. Though far from calling herself a “leftie”, she knows the change in her views wouldn’t be easily accepted back home. “If my father knew about my opinions, he’d kill me!” she says, half-joking, half serious.

Barbara Bloch understands the confusion Israeli immigrants face after crossing the borders to live outside Israel. The Israeli immigrants’ views don’t conform to what appears to some extent to be mainstream thinking in the Jewish community. She believes that because of this they find other people with whom they share common values and ideas.

The experiences of Israeli immigrants in Australia and the Australian Jewish community in Australia are poles apart, according to Bloch. She notices that many Israelis don’t always associate with the Jewish community and are not involved in its politics.

“There is a difference between your identity as an Israeli, or as a Jew. They’re not the same thing,” she says. “For Jews who aren’t Israeli, Israel has come to represent so many different things, not all of them based on reality. They have an unreal image of this place that is a safety net for Jews.” While some Jews see Israel as a modern miracle after 2,000 years of Jewish exile, Israeli immigrants like Roi Smith are wary of such views.

Smith grew up in Israel, and so did his family. “My parents have gone through so much killing and death, but I was just told not to pick up buttons from the street because they could blow up … it was just a part of living in Israel.” For him, Israel was anything but a safe haven for Jews.

Bloch explains that attitudes toward Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict differ significantly between the Israeli and Jewish communities. Some immigrants may hold critical views that in Israel are part of the normal spectrum of public opinion, but are considered unacceptable in the diaspora communities.

“In the Jewish Australian community there has been some questioning about Israel, but there is a very basic fundamental line in the sand that you can’t cross in terms of how critical you can be,” she continues.

Ilana Burstein is sure that if she ever lives in Israel again, she would no longer be compassionate towards the other side. She believes her opinions would change again to match those of her relatives and friends “unless something drastic happens”.

But she won’t be turning up at the arrival lounge at Ben Gurion airport anytime soon. Yonit Oakley and Roi Smith have also made Australia their new home. Barbara Bloch says that even if they were to leave Australia, their ways of seeing the world have altered forever. “I think it’s hard once you’ve had your eyes open to then close them again.”

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Article edited by Virginia Tressider.
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About the Author

Hagar Cohen is a journalism student at UTS, and a current affairs radio reporter at the sydney based community radio station 2SER FM. She arrived in Australia from Israel two years ago.

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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