Israel Courts British Doctors at London Job Fair as Physician Exodus Deepens

Israeli government agencies and partner organisations ran a recruitment event in London aimed at persuading British doctors to move to Israel, at a time when the country is losing medical professionals. The job fair, called MedEx UK, took place at a Jewish community centre in the city on Sunday.

It was hosted by Nefesh B'Nefesh, an organisation that promotes Jewish immigration to Israel, together with the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration. The fair is part of the International Medical Aliyah Program, launched in 2020 with the goal of bringing 2,000 doctors to Israel by 2029. The programme holds job fairs designed to ease the process of gaining Israeli medical licensing.

Emails sent to attendees, seen by Middle East Eye, promised chances to meet representatives of Israeli hospitals and health funds. Participants could also sit the YAEL Hebrew proficiency test on site, which is required to obtain a medical licence.

An activist from Jewish Anti-Zionist Action who got into the event said attendees received leaflets from providers such as Terem and Clalit, which operate centres in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. A Terem flyer listed centres in the settlements of Modiin, Beit Shemesh, Ma'ale Adumim and Beitar Illit. The attendee list included representatives of Leumit Health Services, which a promotional video says runs medical centres and pharmacies in 30 West Bank communities, as well as the head of obstetrics and gynaecology in the Israeli military.

The activist said eminent professors attended for the day and flew back the next day. They added that Shivat Zion, which Declassified UK has reported helps British citizens relocate to West Bank settlements, was also present. According to the activist, Clalit representatives stressed that placements were available wherever recruits wanted to go in Israel, with help for accommodation. Middle East Eye contacted Nefesh B'Nefesh, the Jewish Agency, the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration and Clalit, but received no response by publication.

The drive is part of a long campaign to counter a physician brain drain. A recent Israeli Medical Association survey found 1,369 doctors left the country for more than a year between 2023 and 2025. In 2025, the Health Ministry cut the experience needed for exemption from the licensing exam from 14 years to 10. In 2026, it announced up to 240 million NIS ($76.7m) for international recruitment of medical staff.

At the same time, the ministry has adopted measures expected to limit Palestinian doctors entering the system. The 2019 Yatziv Reform withdrew recognition of medical degrees from countries outside the OECD, including Moldova, Armenia and Romania, where Palestinians often study, as well as from Palestinian universities in the West Bank. Palestinian citizens of Israel face barriers to entering Israeli medical schools, and Palestinians from the occupied territories cannot enrol, so many study abroad where fees are lower.

Palestinians made up 25 percent of Israel's physicians in 2023, up from eight percent in 2010. The health ministry said "Arabs and Druze" accounted for almost 45 percent of newly licensed medics in 2023, compared with 18 percent in 2010. This year, the number of new doctors is expected to fall sharply as students who began in 2019 at now unrecognised schools graduate without accepted degrees.

Shani Bar Tuvia of Physicians for Human Rights Israel said Palestinians now make up around nine percent of medical students in Israel. "So nine percent cannot become 45 percent of the doctors," she said, adding that the ministry knew the reform would mean fewer licensed doctors. The ministry has also opened new medical schools at Ariel University, the only university in a settlement, and Reichman University, the only private university in Israel. Bar Tuvia said those schools are "almost irrelevant for Palestinians."