Emigration solution for many

Israeli couple: There is too little bread in the Jewish community and we wind up eating each other. Abroad, people eat the bread

Attila Somfalvi|Published: 09.29.06 , 10:54

We hear about ‘them’ more and more, in cafes, in hospital lines, at the post office, almost everywhere. You friends know one of ‘them’. Even your friends’ friends know one of ‘them’.

The upstairs neighbor tearfully says she misses her son. And her daughter. They both decided to become one of ‘them’.

Uri Lahav (32) and Ma’ayan Kinen (28) are two of ‘them’. ‘Them’ meaning ‘frustrated young Israelis who’ve given up on what going on here and are on their way to Australia/US/Canada etc.’

Although the Day of Atonement approaches, Lahav and Kinen didn’t apologize for their decision to leave the country and start a new life far away from what they once called home.

Lahav and Kinen - 'We're desperate' (Photo: Attila Somfalvi)

They didn’t hide behind aliases either. On the contrary, they consciously decided to speak to Ynet to explain what lead them to leave everything, what made them decide that Israel is no longer the place they want to live.

Desperation, frustration, and anger at the country’s conduct, overpowered the two. Slowly, the realization that Israel held no future for them began to build. “Suddenly, we sobered up to the fact that it’s wrong to be here, this country has no future,” they said.

They decided that they wanted to make it very, very clear what made them throw their hands up in frustration, give up, turn to the Australian embassy, and ‘get the hell out of here’ as soon as possible.

Lahav explained, “What’s happening now in the country is not what we knew as children. We might have been exposed to other things, but bottom line – it’s not nice living here. There are too many ‘incidents’ here.”

“Here, there is too little bread for too many people. There is too little bread in the Jewish community and we wind up eating each other. Abroad, people eat the bread. Abroad, the way I see it, Israeli’s have advantages. Just to be clear: we aren’t looking to get rich. We are just looking for a quiet life,” he said.

Kinen continued, “We don’t have any illusions. We know we will have some trouble. There isn’t a moment when we think we are going to paradise. But the thought of there being some place better, makes you say ‘I have to try that’. I know that over there I might be a class B citizen, but that bothers me less than being a class A citizen here, and still not feel at home.”

“At the moment, I don’t feel that Israel is my home. At the moment I am not in Israel wholeheartedly, because I know there is someplace better. So I don’t have a problem leaving, I don’t have patriotic feelings stopping me,” she said.

Surprisingly, the couple is what you would call ‘the salt of the earth’. Both Lahav and Kinen were raised in families deeply rooted in the country.

Still, when asked if they were running away because they haven’t managed to build the home they wanted, they agreed, “We don’t have a problem with the term ‘running away’. We think that when you are being beat up on – you run. It’s a crime to stay somewhere you aren’t happy. And hear we feel we’re being beat up on, so we’re running.”