Israeli expats stir up trouble by urging others to join them in Berlin - and enjoy lower food prices

Outrage as economic discontent sees Jews give up on the Zionist dream and relocate to the birthplace of the Nazi party

A woman wears a kippah, the traditional Jewish headdress, as she takes part in a demonstration in Berlin (AFP/Getty Images)

Young Israeli expats have unleashed controversy by encouraging others to join them in Berlin, touching on two of the most sensitive issues in Israel: the country’s high cost of living and Jewish people’s tortured history with Germany.

While Israelis have been angered after learning that food prices are much lower in Germany, they are also outraged that the form of protest has been to give up on the Zionist dream by leaving the Jewish state, and relocate to the birthplace of the Nazi party. It rankles many in a society that once considered emigration shamefully akin to treason, at a time when many Israelis want unity after a brutal summer war in Gaza.

The uproar began several weeks ago when a 25-year-old former Israeli army officer flaunted photos of his grocery receipts – including those of a popular chocolate pudding that sells in Germany for one-third the price in Israel – and boasted about the good life in the German capital.

Now known as the “Milky” protest, after the pudding’s Israeli name, the Facebook campaign has received 17,000 “likes” and pictures of Israelis holding signs asking German Chancellor Angela Merkel for a visa have gone viral.

The campaign marks a new channel for economic discontent, three years after a massive protest movement by hundreds of thousands of Israelis demanding lower prices, affordable housing and a narrower gap between rich and poor, largely failed.

But the political backlash has been stronger, with the idealisation of Berlin viewed as a hurtful provocation. Less than 70 years after the end of the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were killed, memories are still fresh – especially among Israel’s large community of survivors.

Finance Minister Yair Lapid, whose centrist Yesh Atid party rode the 2011 protests to become a major player in Israeli politics, said he sympathised with the burden of the new protesters but not their method. “These people are anti-Zionists. I’m a Zionist, I think Jews should live in Israel,” he said. “That doesn’t change the fact that the cost of living is high here... The cost of living is not the only question for a person to consider when deciding where to live and by which values.”

Israeli expats in Berlin attend a protest to encourage their compatriots to move to Germany (AP)

The former army officer behind the protest said he still loves his country and would prefer to live in Tel Aviv but just cannot afford it. He said his goal is to spur politicians like Lapid into action. “My aim is to educate the Israeli government. They need to make Israel a more attractive place for young people,” he said in an interview. He asked that his identity be withheld.

He said thousands of exasperated Israelis have asked him for help in getting visas. He reasons that if Israelis vote with their feet, the government will be forced to serve the public better. Cabinet Minister Yair Shamir, an ultranationalist politician and son of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, told the Maariv newspaper that he pities “the Israelis who no longer remember the Holocaust and abandoned Israel for a pudding”.

AP