• last year
After President Netanyahu's re-election, many Israelis have decided to try to obtain Germany citizenship, but not all have received a warm welcome back to the country.
Transcript
00:00 Israeli author Tomer Dutton-Dreyfus is one of a growing number of people from his country
00:05 making Germany home.
00:07 He left in 2011 over his disagreement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's
00:13 politics.
00:14 Now, Tomer says, Netanyahu's re-election and judicial reforms that have led to massive
00:21 protests are making Israelis consider following his lead.
00:24 "A lot of people have contacted me from my circle of friends, from my family, and even
00:30 people that I don't know.
00:31 I get tons of messages all the time regarding tips and advice on leaving Israel and coming
00:40 to Germany."
00:41 Companies in Israel say they are getting a surge in interest in people wanting to gain
00:46 German citizenship.
00:47 "Germany is considered to be a very stable country in Europe.
00:55 All the world knows what Germany is.
00:56 Many many many Jews came from Germany, Jewish families, their descendants now are asking
01:03 for this."
01:04 German statistics say nearly 3,700 Israelis received German citizenship last year, and
01:11 there are a total of more than 14,000 people with Israeli citizenship living in Germany.
01:18 But Israelis are also facing difficulties.
01:20 Police say that an Israeli tourist was attacked in this neighborhood this month after speaking
01:25 over the phone in Hebrew.
01:27 They say they're looking at a possible anti-Semitic motive.
01:30 It comes as a far-right Alternative for Deutschland, or AFD party, is seeing record high numbers
01:36 in the polls.
01:38 In the past, an AFD politician complained about Berlin's Holocaust memorial, calling
01:43 it a "monument of shame."
01:45 Polls suggest the party is now the second most popular in the country.
01:51 In June, it won an election to lead a district for the first time.
01:55 This expert on the far-right says one of the AFD's greatest chances of success is with
02:00 EU elections.
02:01 "I think if they can mobilize their people, they also will gain a lot of seats there.
02:08 And I think that is really something that I'm afraid of, because that means an imminent
02:13 threat.
02:14 That's not something on the long term."
02:16 Three of Tomer's grandparents are Holocaust survivors.
02:20 He says he's especially fearful of the far-right in Germany because of its history in the country.
02:25 "I think the rise of the far-right in Germany is frightening to me as a Jew and as an immigrant.
02:37 And it should be clear that it's also a very big problem for us, because we're in the same
02:43 boat as other oppressed groups and other diasporic groups in Germany."
02:49 [SWOOSH]

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