Israelis leave their land, forced out by a battered economy and years

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of violence.

More on Sharon's disapora.

Jean Max emigrated from Britain to
Israel in 1970 as a committed Zionist.
Her three children were born and
grew up in Israel. But since they
reached adulthood, all three have left
for new lives in the United States.

And Ms Max, now divorced, is
planning to follow them. Her
American visa has arrived, she is
going to Boston, where her daughter
lives, to look for work. If she finds it,
she is leaving Israel after 33 years.

Ms Max and her family are part of a
growing phenomenon that has the
Israeli political establishment worried.
New figures from the Immigration
and Absorption Ministry stunned the
establishment. Those figures show
760,000 Israeli citizens now live
abroad. The ministry says its figures are an informal estimate,
based on research by Israeli embassies around the world.

Even so, for a country of just 6,600,000, it is a large number. But
the big surprise was the growth in the number of Israelis living
abroad: in 2000, it was 550,000. That increase has undoubtedly
been fuelled by the suicide bombings and other attacks by
Palestinian militants over the past three years, and by the
severe recession into which the Israeli economy has been
plunged.

Independent UK