2025-03-14

Living outside Israel as an Israeli Citizen

To acquire citizenship is one thing, and to feel you've become a true citizen is another. I felt I had become a full-fledged Israeli citizen paradoxically when I found myself kvetching about Israeli society and culture. Another moment was when someone yelled at me "Chutzpah!" ;-)

Another, rather common, trait of a "good" Israeli citizen may be to live outside Israel. I myself have been feeling this since I left Israel. You may have left Israel physically, but Israel doesn't leave you so easily. One of the ways to maintain this connection is the notorious Israeli bureaucracy.

As I wrote before, I spent my last month in Israel "commuting" to the tax authority to solve some thorny bureaucratic problem. I had an illusion that it had been solved in my last (probably sixth) visit there. In retrospect I was too naive to think that I got rid of Israeli bureaucracy once and for all.

In the meanwhile I've discovered that the problem has not only not been solved but has even become more complicated as I can't "commute" to the tax authority physically. After months of fruitless endeavors I had to give up, leaving the problem unsolved.

Recently I was "blessed" with two additional, no less simple, bureaucratic problems involving the tax authority again and the Israeli bank I've been working with. When I had a telephone conversation with a bank clerk this week, I was astonished to discover how aggressively I started to speak with him as I used to (have to) while I still lived in Israel. In short, my verbal aggressiveness has only remained dormant.

So funnily enough, the less stressful way for an Israeli citizen to cope with Israeli bureaucracy is to live in Israel. But as far as I'm concerned, I don't think this is a sufficient incentive to return to Israel after completing the present mission somewhere in the diaspora, mostly for a financial reason as a prospective pensioner. At least as of now, I'm more inclined to the possibility of living in a third, cheaper, country where I can use a better use of my Israeli private pension.