Israel: Price of 'milky' pudding sparks row over emigration to Germany
- 10 years ago
An Israeli expat’s Facebook boast that a chocolate dessert costs less in Berlin than in Tel Aviv has triggered outrage in his homeland.
There, high prices are a sensitive subject – as is Germany, given its Nazi past.
The social media stir over the cut-price ‘milky’ pudding – as it is known in Israel – has sparked a campaign for more Israelis to move to Berlin.
“When I saw it, it seemed like a joke,” said Eran Levy, 46, an Israeli already settled in the German capital.
“I thought that someone just had some kind of an interest, maybe financial interest, in order to bring as many people here, for whatever reason it is. Since then I also read that this website had got many likes and lists of people willing to move.”
They were hardly the mass protests of three years ago against the cost of living in Israel but dozens drawn by the so-called ‘Milky Protest’ gathered in Tel Aviv on Tuesday night to press for Israelis to move abroad.
“You can save money in Berlin which is a little bit difficult here. Not a little bit difficult, very difficult!” said protester and would-be emigrant Daniel Hershkovitz.
And with “more artistic platforms” and “more freedom of speech”, he added: “all these factors definitely make me think about emigrating from this country”.
But for the Jewish people, Berlin is no ordinary destination with the history of the Holocaust looming large in many Israeli minds – not least for survivors, some of whom still refuse to have anything to do with Germany.
There, high prices are a sensitive subject – as is Germany, given its Nazi past.
The social media stir over the cut-price ‘milky’ pudding – as it is known in Israel – has sparked a campaign for more Israelis to move to Berlin.
“When I saw it, it seemed like a joke,” said Eran Levy, 46, an Israeli already settled in the German capital.
“I thought that someone just had some kind of an interest, maybe financial interest, in order to bring as many people here, for whatever reason it is. Since then I also read that this website had got many likes and lists of people willing to move.”
They were hardly the mass protests of three years ago against the cost of living in Israel but dozens drawn by the so-called ‘Milky Protest’ gathered in Tel Aviv on Tuesday night to press for Israelis to move abroad.
“You can save money in Berlin which is a little bit difficult here. Not a little bit difficult, very difficult!” said protester and would-be emigrant Daniel Hershkovitz.
And with “more artistic platforms” and “more freedom of speech”, he added: “all these factors definitely make me think about emigrating from this country”.
But for the Jewish people, Berlin is no ordinary destination with the history of the Holocaust looming large in many Israeli minds – not least for survivors, some of whom still refuse to have anything to do with Germany.