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Israelis Take to India

As if the West Bank weren’t enough, apparently the Israelis are colonizing India now, too. I kid, I kid!

Israeli backpackers, hippies, ravers and Jew-Büs are flocking to the Indian subcontinent in record numbers, in search of adventure, R-and-R, and spirituality, not to mention cheap drugs.

Not everyone’s happy about this, however, as reflected in the words of this local native:

“I feel very uncomfortable in my own village, like I am in Israel, not in India,” he lamented. “When the Israelis are in a big group, they have no honor. They are rude and noisy. They smoke drugs, hug and schmooze in the middle of the street. Some people just stand here and shake their heads, dance to no music at all. If you tell them to stop, they just insult you, and go on.”

Since large groups of young Israeli backpackers have made Dharamkot one of their chosen hangouts, other Western tourists tend to avoid it, nicknaming it Tel Aviv. According to Singh Pathana, “Today there may be two Europeans out of 100 Israelis.”

Not to worry though, kids! Chabad’s on the scene! Oy!

A recent documentary, entitled Thank God for India, throws its two-cents into the equation, “[dealing] with the generation gap between the young Israeli travellers in India and the conformoties of society in Israel today. The film also takes a look at the new Israeli sub-culture, that has developed in India, as a result of this gap.” Click here to view the film for free online. All you have to do is register for the site.

It also seems that Israeli youth aren’t the only ‘chosen’ folks interested in India. The Israeli government has just signed a free trade pact with the tech-savvy nation, and seems intent on joining them on a lunar mission sometime within the next five years.

Welp, Abraham did send his son’s east with “gifts”…

One thought on “Israelis Take to India

  1. I’ll be visiting India shortly myself and will be steering clear of Israeli backpackers. One-on-one they’re fine, but encountered as a group are dreadful. Something has to be done in Israel to educate young people taking off for parts foreign that being outside of your home country isn’t any excuse for inconsiderate behaviour. Check the following oped piece from The Jerusalem Post, May 2004:
    http://www.orchiddesigns.net/A
    http://www.orchiddesigns.net/A

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