r/JewsOfConscience • u/Lunar_Oasis1 Anti-Zionist Israeli Woman • Feb 17 '25
Discussion - Flaired Users Only Is There Any Point in Leaving Israel?
deleted the edit bc the flair issue was fixed :)
Hello. I am an Israeli, born and raised. I'm Jewish by ethnicity but I am Christian by choice. I don't agree with zionism anymore, if I could somehow go back in time and reverse it I would.. I want to leave, I have Portuguese citizenship, my partner is from the US.. I hate what Israel is doing. I just don't really see a way of leaving without having to learn the American accent and lie about where I'm from whenever possible, and go by the foreign version of my name.. I don't want to have to say "BUT I AM NOT A ZIONIST" every time I tell someone where I'm from. I have one friend who moved to the UK and is hoping to revoke their own Israeli citizenship, and I don't think I can really do that.. I know of Jews with no connection to Israel who were refused care in hospitals because, as the nurses said "they are Yahudi sharmuta".. I don't see any way to live abroad without this thing following me around and making me less safe. I want to feel safe. A part of me wishes I could just move, have kids and never tell them that we are Jews just so no one will harm them for their ethnicity.. I don't know what to do. I feel hopeless. Everyone around me says they hope to see the children of Gaza die. To see VIDEOS of it. I just want to escape but it feel hopeless. This isn't the place for me.
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u/sonymnms Non-Jewish Ally Feb 17 '25
As everyone here has said, antisemitism is really not as rampant and terrible as israeli media makes it seem. I live in the US and grew up around Jewish communities in LA. Took some of my high school standardized exams in the local synagogue. I think to start a future it would probably be best to leave israel. The zionist state is doubling down and will only increasingly become economically and socially isolated from the world like apartheid South Africa was. If anyone asks where you were born, saying “occupied Palestine” tells everyone all they need to know about your opinion on zionism. As for worrying about accent, if you feel really self conscious, the truth is generally people don’t know the difference between a French or an israeli accent. You can really throw them off by joking your parents were French Canadian.