Published: 19 June 2024
Last updated: 19 June 2024
Koh Phangan ("Island of White Sands") is a small island, thick with tropical vegetation, some 600 kilometres south of Bangkok.
Locals say there are between 400 and 500 Israeli families living here. Many have arrived in the past few months.
Daniel moved after being evacuated from his kibbutz in the south after October 7.
“After the evacuation and the hardship that it created, we decided to leave. We wouldn't have wanted to start over anywhere else in Israel. We don't have the energy for it. We chose the extreme direction.
"It's much simpler . You make do with less. You give up a lot of things that you used to think that you can't do without.
"I'm still on the kibbutz's WhatsApp group, so I get updates on rocket alerts, but we're no great news followers. I'm in no rush to know what's going on in Israel.
"I'm not bothered by the moral question. After October 7, I don't feel I have to be in Israel to demonstrate that it's my home. There are no reasons to fight for my home. If I have a chance to give my family safety and move forward, there's no reason I shouldn't do it."
Yasmin Yafe set up a home in Thailand three years ago and has noticed the increasing number of Israelis flocking to Koh Phangan. "The presence of Israelis is very apparent - both the nice side of helping the community and the less nice side that often forgets the place's code of conduct.
"I went through a healing process here. It's somewhere that facilitates healing. I can breathe here, and you can't do that in Israel anymore."
READ MORE
'I can breathe here': the Israelis escaping war to set up home in Thailand (Haaretz)
Comments2
OLJA19 July at 03:26 pm
I’ve been in Thailand for a week.
It took about a day before I realized that every rude, disrespectful guest at the resort happened to be Israeli.
They treated the staff as if they were invisible.
Their children weren’t expected to say “thank you,” and they didn’t.
One woman literally walked straight into me on the stairs because she insisted on walking in the middle, even though there was more than enough room for both of us and she had no mobility issues.
As an experiment, I even tried smiling at people. Instead of a smile back, I got nothing but cold stares. It was honestly bizarre.
For both me and my daughter, it was genuinely shocking. It made me Google “Israelis in Thailand.”
I had no idea this reputation existed or that so many people had written about similar experiences.
People who behave this way need to stop acting as though they are worth more than everyone else.
The staff and the people around them deserve the same respect as anyone else.
BE NICE!
Felicity26 January at 01:01 pm
I remember coming to Koh Phangan at the age of 12, an absolute tropical oasis !
I returned at the age of 22, full moon party mode, still a paradise like no other except for the ugliness of Israeli occupation, I had never witnessed such disgusting display of rudeness and arrogance from a people who were visitors to this land !
They were removed,…..girls were no longer being raped, your belongings were safe and the Thai people weren’t being treated like shit !!!
20 years later……..I returned to a dirty shit hole where everything is owned by Israeli’s, everything is being catered to excessive drug use, only catering to Israelis, only catering to all the disgusting things that would never be excepted in Israel !
The most disgusting thing is how Israeli’s treat Thai people ! Ugh how they treat anyone not Jewish !
And you wonder why !!