Officials from the United Arab Emirates have sought to woo Israeli doctors to move to the Gulf country, a Monday report said, as some medical professionals discuss moving abroad due to the Netanyahu government’s judicial overhaul.
Thousands of doctors have joined a chat group seeking advice on how to relocate overseas, and some have begun to receive lucrative offers to move to the UAE, Channel 12 reported.
The offers came from official sources in the UAE, as well as Bahrain, which see the turmoil in Israel and the interest in moving abroad as an opportunity, the report said.
The group chat started after the Knesset passed a law to limit court oversight of the government last week, attracting at least 3,000 physicians.
The offers reportedly came from official sources in the UAE, as well as Bahrain – both countries were among the first two Arab states to sign the US-brokered Abraham Accords with Israel in 2020, followed by Morocco and Sudan. In June, the UAE and Israel entered into a strategic partnership, involving Israel’s Sheba Medical Centre and PureHealth, the largest healthcare platform in the Middle East, based in Abu Dhabi.
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The report noted that the terms of the offers for the UAE include a salary “three times higher than the standard in Israel” in addition to education opportunities for the physicians’ children and a “golden visa” allowing for long-term residency and other benefits.
Last week, doctors across Israel staged a one-day general strike to protest the parliament’s approval of the bill which abolishes the “reasonableness” clause that allows Israel’s Supreme Court to overrule government decisions. The previous week also saw credit rating agency Moody’s warning of “significant risk” in the country over the judicial overhaul, “with negative consequences for Israel’s economy and security situation.”
