Emilia vexler
05/26/2021 11:54 AM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 05/26/2021 11:54 AM
While the eyes of the world wandered just a few inches from the coronavirus pandemic and focused on the tragic toll of the bombings on Gaza, Sheila Khodriya - 29-year-old Argentine - had everything ready to leave the Palermo neighborhood and leave. to live in Israel.
Images of the iron dome that intercepted Hamas rockets reached his cell phone.
Also the stories of Argentines who had emigrated a few months ago and now recounted the "30 seconds" or "minute and a half" they had to get to the nearest refuge.
In a week of escalating warfare, Hamas rockets left 12 people dead in Israeli territory.
Israel's attacks on Gaza left 248 dead, including 66 children, and nearly 2,000 wounded.
But the decision was made.
And his idea did not change even when the bombs hit civilians.
As in this story, as this newspaper learned from the Jewish Agency for Israel, not only did those who planned to emigrate travel to Israel during the outbreaks, but in that week and until the end of this article,
there were no migrants who "have left. thrown back "
. Yes there was suspension of flights as a result of the pandemic.
Later, the ceasefire would come.
But the eruption of the conflict in the Middle East
amassed a new front of violence
: that of Jewish and Arab citizens within Israel.
Something that Natan Sachs, director of the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institute, a think tank based in Washington, calls "community violence."
None of that seems to hold back the trip to the Holy Land.
Or, for some people interviewed in this note,
the "escape from Argentina
.
"
"Everyone is in Tel Aviv," says Sheila.
Many in his environment have already traveled.
"I decided in February. The situation in Argentina led me to make this decision.
I feel that young people have a better future there.
They have a better quality of life. There people are not afraid to go out. My friends are not they are afraid to go out at night, for example. And it is a matter of prosperity ", Sheila tells
Clarín
.
Sheila works in digital communication and, she says, "it is proven that
people live better in Israel than here
."
He doesn't just mention statistics.
She lived it: "I traveled to Israel six times and in one of my trips, in an internship, I was able to see that people live differently, that they live better. Here we have to have more and more jobs to be able to improve a quality of life."
But, he clarifies, "beyond all that, which could be found in another country," is religion. Sheila, who is a Zionist, always had a Jewish upbringing. "I always had a longing for Israel. When I go there I say that 'I am my best version'.
Getting there is like going home,
" he sums up. That wish won all the battles. It leaves at the beginning of July. Alone.
Does the war conflict, now "quiet", have no influence? Is "escaping" the same from Argentina? "This context in Israel is something that has happened for 73 years. It is part of putting the cards on the table. In that week of bombing Israel, my head was on 'How were my family and friends there?' horror, a constant threat.
The first days I was scared, but I did not hesitate,
"he replies.
When he says that people live better there, he remarks that there are better opportunities, economic and social solvency, and that women live safer.
He has two acquaintances with whom he meets in July to travel.
In April another of his friends left and, from his surroundings, "there are a lot of people who are leaving. More and more. Everyone is in Tel Aviv. It's incredible. Not just singles without children like me, who are more and more those who are leaving.
I also know two or three families who are about to leave,
"he reaffirms.
"The national situation helps you to leave, it is not the total excuse to choose Israel. It is not the same as going to Spain, as other Argentines who have citizenship leave," he adds.
The process of emigrating
To plan his trip, he went to the Jewish Agency for Israel, the specialists to start the
emigration process
.
Which is long, from six months to a year, from when the decision is made until the plane is boarded.
Those who emigrate are called
Olim
.
Both the trip and the internal transfers to the destinations are financed by that institution.
"They recommended that I first study Hebrew there for five months to level myself, to know where I am getting," says Sheila.
During that time, he will live in a shared space with young immigrants.
Each city is prepared for the reception. The number of emigrants from this country who will leave for the rest of the year is not public today, but in the midst of the pandemic, in 2020 more than 500 people left and
so far this year around 350 have already traveled
. Due to the coronavirus, Ben Gurion airport was closed, on February 20 it was reopened in a limited way for the entry of up to 2,000 people per week and then it was again restricted to 200 every 7 days, with the aim of preventing the entry of new strains .
That continues today.
The process takes time because it has different stages.
Whoever wants to go to live in Israel must first present documentation, meet with those who will guide them in the process, designate the programs and places of integration for their arrival in the country.
In the middle he will do different trainings, ranging from topics related to job search in Israel to the operation of the educational system.
What you have to understand is that, passed in 1950, the Law of Return establishes that
any Jewish person in the world can emigrate to Israel and obtain citizenship
.
And the state of alarm is not new in that country.
That experience is already lived as a tourist.
The presence of armed forces is not only seen at the Wailing Wall, located in the Old City of Jerusalem, but throughout the territory.
Those who hire an elite tour are even offered to travel with their guides in private vehicles.
And there is also an
upgrade
to travel with escorts.
But stories like Sheila's are not incidental.
The
profile of Argentine emigrants
is not limited to those "up to 35 years old", as is often believed.
Many begin their university studies there.
But there are also entire families that leave everything and settle in Israel.
"We also have adult people, sometimes they will meet again with relatives who are already installed there, but there are also others who leave without having anyone," they explain from the Agency.
There is no defined profile.
The desire is the shared one, to "escape" from Argentina, for some people, or, specifically, to have "longing for Israel."
Or both at the same time.
What is it like to adapt to Israel today
On June 1, Israel would lift almost all the restrictions it has imposed since the coronavirus appeared on its territory.
After a relentless vaccination campaign to lower the numbers of infections and deaths, more than half of the population is already vaccinated and in the last 24 hours it reported only 12 positive cases.
Since mid-April, it is no longer mandatory to wear a mask outdoors, but it is mandatory on public transport and indoors.
Meanwhile, the restrictions imposed on travelers arriving in Israel will continue to be in force, and they are even considering tightening them to prevent the entry of new variants of coronavirus.
So
the Argentines who arrive will have to quarantine
.
"There may be cases of Argentines who regret the conflict. But most of the people who are leaving know the situation,
know how it is and decide to continue
with the emigration in the same way. The imminent risk of bombings (in general, beyond of the current conflict) is not the same throughout the country. That is taken into account, "they detail from the Agency.
The safest places are to the north.
In the south, even if you are not at risk, the alarm sirens can sound.
For someone who leaves Argentina and does not know those situations, they define them as "tremendous stress" and "psychologically hard".
So, those who are emigrating, in general, go first to northern cities.
That is the "adaptation".
The places depend on the integration program that each immigrant does, but there is no specific place.
There are places called
Merkaz Klitá
(Absorption Centers) which are centers specially prepared to receive immigrants.
Loaner apartments can also be reached directly for a couple of weeks until they can find a place of their own.
Or choose to arrive at a
kibbutz
and stay for the first six months to do
Ulpan
, which is
an intensive program of study of Hebrew
.
Those who arrive from Argentina look for bigger cities and stay in the center of the country: in Ra'anana, Rishon Letzion, Hertzlia, Modi'in, Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.
The experience of a family who arrived at the
Klita merkaz
of Beer Sheva, in the south, during the war, was not traumatic at all.
They were transferred to Jerusalem for a few days so that they can clear themselves from the sirens and can sleep without having to go to the shelters.
Now they are in Kiriat Moria, a campus in the Armon HaNatziv neighborhood, again in the south.
ACE
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