http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/185891#.VDgmDha8FhJA group of Israelis living in Berlin has shocked compatriots back home by urging them to move to Germany as a much cheaper alternative to living in the Jewish state, AFP reports Monday.
"It is time to immigrate to Berlin," says the group's Hebrew-language Facebook page entitled "Let's Immigrate to Berlin" which offers practical tips for those seeking an alternative to the high cost of living in Israel.
But the page has triggered anger in Israel, where leaving is regarded by many as a form of desertion.
And to abandon the biblical land of milk and honey for cheaper dairy products in the birthplace of the Nazi Holocaust has touched a particularly raw nerve.
High rents and food costs, particularly that of cottage cheese, an Israeli staple, were among the triggers of a popular protest movement that peaked in 2011 with record numbers of Israelis from all walks of life taking to the streets and squatting in urban tent camps.
"The page is organized by a group of Israelis who understand how you feel, who have also suffered from the extreme cost of accommodation and food in Israel," the group's page says.
"We help you to fit in and acclimatise in the new city, a place where there are no worries about making ends meet. Where there is no need to choose between buying cottage cheese at the supermarket or sending your daughter to enrichment activities."
The site shows what it says is a typical grocery receipt, showing items such as orange juice, milk, dairy desserts, pasta and cheese at prices far lower than the cheapest Israeli discount chain.
The existence of the site made the front page of Israeli tabloid Maariv on Monday, provoking the rage of political columnist Ben Caspit.
"Let's get into the incomprehensible fact that 75 years after Berlin shook under Nazi boots and...Hitler's SS, it's as if nothing happened," he wrote. "Israelis are flocking back to Berlin. It's hard for them here, in the only Jewish country... They're comfortable in Berlin. Out of all the places in the world, in Berlin."
The phenomenon is not a new one.
Just a year ago, Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid), who swept into government on the coattails of the 2011 protests, decried "all the people who are fed up and leaving for Europe."
"I have little patience for people who are willing to throw into the garbage the only country the Jews have, because it's more comfortable in
Berlin," he posted on Facebook.
Israelis have been flocking to Germany despite the rampant anti-Semitism raging through both the country and worldwide.
Anti-Semitism throughout Europe reached record highs during the past few months as incitement and attacks against Jews - mostly led by Muslim the extremists, but also elements from the far-right and far-left - left Jewish communities throughout the continent in a state of shock.
Germany's Jewish community in July, at the height of the fighting between Israel and terrorists in Gaza, condemned an "explosion of evil and violent hatred of Jews" at pro-Palestinian rallies where some demonstrators chanted that Jews should be "gassed".
The spate of ugly incidents that deeply unsettled Germany's resurgent 200,000-strong Jewish community also saw a petrol bomb hurled at the facade of a synagogue in the western city of Wuppertal. Three people, described as "Palestinian" nationals, have been arrested in connection to that attack.
Anti-Semitism has become so high recently that German Chancellor Angela Merkel, along with Jewish leaders, spearheaded a rally in a central Berlin square against Jew hatred earlier this month.
Despite the attacks, some 11,000 Israelis are estimated to be living in Berlin alone, according to Germany‘s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees.
Topic: Facebook Page Urges Frugal Israelis to Move to Berlin (Read 1253 times)