The New Promised Land of the Israeli
Every year, after long and hard years in the military, between 30 000 and 40 000 young israeli go abroad. Their principal destination : India. Their program? Chilling out. Some time ago, Europe was the dream. In the seventies, young israeli, as soon as they got out of the military, would book a plane for Rome or Paris. The following decade, it was in the United States that they went to live their crazier years. Now they’ve found their eldorado in India. Like in Hampi, 300 km east of Goa, a small village in Karnataka that looks like a resort dedicated to young israeli : signs written in hebrew, hummous and chatchouka (israeli specitalties) in the restaurants, hebrew speaking indians… The strategy is paying off : here 80% of the travellers come from Tel Aviv, Jerusalem or Haifa…
[Published in Be, June 2011]