חיים בהשוואה: המשבר המשטרי בישראל בעיני פליטי הדיקטטורה הרוסית

How do recent immigrants from Russia perceive the political shift in Israel and do they take part in protest actions? In this article, we presentinitial insights from research on a phenomenon that we refer to as “living in comparison.” We show how middle-class immigrants who left the authoritarian regime of Vladimir Putin encounter oppressive dimensions of life in Israel.Having immigrated under the Law of Return to their ethno-national homeland,most of these newcomers perceive Israel as a free and democratic country and an alternative to the dictatorship in their home country. For the most part, they ignore the Israeli occupation and are unaware of the deep social tensions within Israeli society. However, the proximity between the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the political regime shift in Israel is sharpening these immigrants’ interpretivelens and civil political consciousness. We reveal a dynamic of comparison that the immigrants conduct between social processes and personal experiences in their native and host countries. The article demonstrates how the experience of immigration and strangeness prompts a process of critical self-positioning in the political space of the new society.