Astounding Facts Most People Don’t Know About Israel 8 

Relative to her population, Israel has absorbed more immigrants than any other country in history 

Visitors to Israel are often surprised when they encounter the staggering diversity of Israelis. From the moment they step off the plane, they see a myriad of faces of every conceivable ethnic origin.  “But they don’t look Jewish” is a frequent observation, and not just by a prejudiced minority. There is a common misconception that all Israeli Jews are (or at least should look like) ethnically white Europeans, and that if they’re not, they must be Arabs. Like many stereotypes, it is completely untrue. 

Another frequent (and related) accusation, especially prevalent in some modern “progressive” circles, is this: that while there may be a few black or brown Jews, Israel (being an allegedly racist, apartheid state) prioritises white Jewish immigration. This notion is so absurd it is laughable: Israel today is a multi-ethnic society that has a larger proportion of non-whites than most western nations. Look at the figures: the (approximate) proportion of non-whites in Australia is 9%, in France 15%, in the UK 18%, in the USA 23%, in Canada 27%, and in Israel 68%.

More numbers: in 1948, Israel’s population was 800,000; today, it exceeds 9 million. Most of this spectacular increase has been due to two main factors – births and immigration. Nowadays, the former contributes the overwhelming majority of new Israelis but that was not always the case. The country has received newcomers from more than 100 countries, doubling her population in the first three years of her existence and tenfold in her first 50 years, a scale of increase took the world as a whole 500 years to achieve. This makes Israel the largest immigrant absorbing nation, relative to her size, in world history. This unique achievement occurred against a background of perpetual war, terrorism and threatened annihilation. How did this demographic explosion come about?

The waves of Jewish immigration (Aliyah) following Israel’s rebirth originated from two main sources: survivors of the Holocaust and refugees from the Middle East and North Africa. Few were able to bring personal possessions or money placing an even greater burden on state resources. As well as having experienced serious trauma and social dislocation, many were poorly educated or lacked appropriate skills for their new lives, or were otherwise disadvantaged through sickness, disability or old age. These Olim (immigrants) inevitably posed an enormous logistical challenge to the host community. 

What about non-Jews? Doesn’t Israel strain every sinew to keep them out? That’s another propagandistic smear. The answer is emphatically no. While Israel is the world’s only Jewish state, she is far from exclusively Jewish, let alone the ethno-nationalist Jewish state that is alleged by her detractors. When most of the rest of the world was closed to the Vietnamese “boat people” in the 1970s, prime minister Begin ordered Israel to open her doors to several hundred of the Asian refugees – hence the curious modern phenomenon of ethnically Chinese Israeli citizens. Around 25% of Israel’s current population are non-Jewish, 80% of whom are Arabs, a community that also includes numerous immigrants; many Muslim and Christian Arab citizens of Israel originated from neighbouring countries, including Lebanon, Syria and, in more recent times, the Palestinian Authority. 

Indeed Arab immigration to Israel antedates the establishment of the modern state. The Zionist revival of the Jewish homeland attracted hundreds of thousands of workers from all over the Middle East; their descendants today comprise a large proportion of today’s Palestinians. In the Boston Post in 1948, Robert Kennedy wrote: “The Jews point with pride to the fact that over 500,000 Arabs, in the 12 years between 1932 and 1944, came into Palestine to take advantage of living conditions existing in no other Arab state.” (Incidentally, this growing non-Jewish labour force was treated exactly the same as Jews in terms of working conditions, pay, trade union rights and welfare provision). 

Since 1948, tens of thousands of Palestinians, including refugees or their descendants, have immigrated to Israel, legally and officially, under the government’s little-publicised family reunification programme. This is effectively a controlled implementation of the Palestinian demand for “return” in a manner that seeks to avoid jeopardising either Israel’s Jewish majority or, more crucially, her security. The programme has been intermittently suspended due to its cynical exploitation, notably during the Second Intifada (2000-2005), by terrorists who used it as cover to infiltrate into the country and perpetrate violent attacks. In addition, there are an unknown number of illegal Palestinian immigrants.

So let’s lay to rest the old canard that Israel only accepts and grants citizenship to Jews. There’s a natural emphasis on Aliyah since providing a safe haven for Jews was the raison d’etre for the rebirth of Israel, fully endorsed as such by the international community. But non-Jews have always been attracted to the country and their contribution has been welcomed. Even under the Law of Return, that ostensibly favours Jews, large numbers of non-Jewish immigrants have been successfully absorbed over the decades, including hundreds of thousands from Russia, Ukraine and other eastern European states. Today more than half of all immigrants are not considered Jewish by the immigration authorities, though many claim Jewish heritage, identity or ancestry. 

Nevertheless, we shouldn’t gloss over the problems that Israel faces in absorbing newcomers. Almost all of the multiple ethnic, religious and national groups – Jewish and non-Jewish – have complained of discrimination to some degree. In recent times, illegal African migrants, most claiming refugee or asylum status, have fared particularly badly. These migrants are predominantly men who entered Israel surreptitiously via Egypt from Eritrea or Sudan (the latter having no diplomatic relations with Israel, thereby complicating matters). Their arrival has generated heated controversy in the country and public opinion is generally resistant to their large-scale absorption. Some populist politicians denounce them as a source of criminal or terrorist activity, while liberals demand that the government (that classifies most of them as economic migrants rather than refugees) should desist from deporting them, citing Israel’s moral obligation to distressed peoples everywhere. Until their status is clarified, their future remains precarious. In 2018, however, Israel agreed a five-year plan of action with the UN that would enable the majority to remain in the country.  

Israel is far from alone in having to confront this dilemma: almost every European country is currently engaged in a similar crisis. Unlike them, however, Israel is a tiny country that, despite being permanently surrounded by enemies who strive ceaselessly to murder her citizens and bring about her destruction, has a long and praiseworthy record of absorbing people of all backgrounds. Although the consequences for security, public expenditure and social cohesion have been massively burdensome, Israel has always been a quintessentially immigrant society and is justifiably proud of that record. 

Israel has shown, time and again, that she can rise to the challenge of absorbing millions of desperate, homeless people. Many other states now face that challenge. The UN predicts that global migration will increase dramatically in the coming decades – up to one billion by 2050 through environmental causes alone. It is unarguable that Israel has much to teach the world about coping with mass immigration. The key question is: will the world listen?