Responding to claims that Israel is relocating Jews to Azerbaijan: Is Israel short of Jews itself?

The claim periodically circulated on social media and certain media platforms that “Israel wants to take over Azerbaijan demographically by relocating Jews to the country” is an unfounded conspiracy theory that makes little sense from a political, historical or, most importantly, demographic perspective.

Those spreading such baseless claims are either completely unaware of actual demographic figures in Israel and around the world or are deliberately engaging in cheap conspiracy theories to mislead public opinion.

A rational examination of the facts reveals a very different picture. Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, one of the central pillars of its state strategy and national security doctrine has been Aliyah — the programme of encouraging Jews from around the world to return to their historic homeland and immigrate to Israel. This strategic policy remains in place and has never been abandoned. On the contrary, the Israeli government seeks to attract Jewish communities wherever they live, from Eastern Europe and North America to the Middle East and Latin America, offering various incentives and benefits to encourage immigration.

That is because demographics represent one of Israel’s major strategic concerns. As in other developed countries, birth rates among Israel’s secular population have been declining, while the country’s total population stands at around 10 million. More than two million Arab citizens are included in that figure. For a state surrounded by hundreds of millions of Arabs and Muslims, retaining Jewish citizens and attracting additional Jewish immigrants from abroad is a matter of vital importance. The idea that a country investing substantial resources in attracting Jews from across the globe would suddenly take its limited human resources and relocate them to another country — particularly Azerbaijan — is, the author argues, absurd.

Israel’s policies aimed at expanding its presence or influence are no secret, the article argues, but the geographical focus is clear: it concerns the areas along its borders, including the creation of buffer zones on Palestinian and Arab land. Even in these territories, the author claims, Israel faces difficulties in finding enough people to settle new communities.

Against this backdrop, the article asks what resources or population could enable Israel to organise a mass relocation to Azerbaijan, a country thousands of kilometres away with a population of more than 10 million, a strong military and established state traditions.

For such a scenario to become reality, the author argues rhetorically, every Jewish family would have to have at least eight to ten children, with that pattern continuing uninterrupted for 100 to 200 years, before a population surplus could be redirected to other parts of the world.

Ismayil Shahli