Israel holds recruitment drive for British doctors amid physician brain drain
Israeli government agencies held a recruitment drive in London encouraging British doctors to emigrate amid an exodus of medical professionals from the country.
The medical job fair "MedEx UK" was hosted by Nefesh B’Nefesh - an organisation promoting the immigration of Jews to Israel - the Jewish Agency for Israel, and the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration at a Jewish community centre in London on Sunday.
The event forms part of International Medical Aliyah Program (Imap) which was launched in 2020 in order to bring “2,000 doctors to Israel by 2029” to counter shortages of medical staff by hosting medical job fairs aimed at streamlining the process of Israeli medical licensing.
Emails sent to attendees seen by Middle East Eye boasted opportunities to meet Israeli hospital and health fund representatives and to take on site YAEL Hebrew proficiency tests - which are required to obtain medical licenses.
An activist from Jewish Anti-Zionist Action (Jaza) who gained entry to the event told MEE that attendees were handed leaflets from medical providers and health funds - such as Terem and Clalit - which run centres in illegal Israeli settlements across the occupied West Bank.
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A Terem flyer seen by MEE listed medical centres in the settlements of Ma’ale Adumim and Beitar Illit.
A list of attendees seen by MEE included representatives from Leumit Health Services - which, according to a promotional video, runs medical centres and pharmacies in 30 communities across the occupied West Bank. Others included the head of obstetrics and gynaecology in the Israeli military.
“They had a lot of very eminent professors there. They were only there for the day, and flew back the next day,” the Jaza activist told MEE.
They added that Shivat Zion, an organisation which Declassified UK exposed as providing assistance to British citizens wishing to relocate to settlements in the West Bank, was also attending.
The activist also reported that Clalit representatives “talked a lot about how they had medical placements wherever you wanted to go, they kept saying ‘truly wherever you want to go in Israel, we can help with accommodation’”.
MEE contacted Nefesh B’Nefesh, the Jewish Agency for Israel, the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration and Clalit for comment but did not receive one by the time of publication.
Brain drain
The recruitment drive is part of a years-long campaign by the Israeli government to address a deepening physician "brain drain", with 1,369 doctors leaving the country for over a year between 2023 and 2025, according to a recent survey by the Israeli Medical Association.
To boost international recruitment, the government has introduced a slew of financial inducements and measures to streamline the process of obtaining an Israeli medical license for foreign nationals.
In 2025, the Israeli Ministry of Health issued new regulations stating that doctors with 10 years experience could be exempt from a medical licensing exam, down from the previous experience threshold of 14 years.
In 2026, it announced the allocation of up to 240 million NIS ($76.7m) in funding towards international recruitment of medical staff.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health has introduced measures which will restrict numbers of Palestinian doctors entering the Israeli healthcare system.
In 2019, it adopted the Yatziv Reform, which reduced the number of foreign medical schools whose graduates are eligible to sit Israel's licensing exam.
As discriminatory admission processes and structural barriers limit Palestinian citizens of Israel's access to Israeli medical schools - while Palestinians from the occupied territories are not allowed to enrol - many resort to studying abroad.
Numbers of Palestinian doctors in Israel have soared in recent years. In 2023, they represented 25 percent of Israel’s physicians, up from eight percent in 2010. According to the health ministry, in 2023, "Arabs and Druze" constituted almost 45 percent of newly licensed medics in Israel, up from 18 percent in 2010.
However this year, the number of new doctors entering Israel’s healthcare system is expected to drop sharply because the students who started studying in 2019 at medical schools that Israel no longer recognises will now be graduating - and their degrees will not be accepted.
'The number of Palestinians among medical students in Israel has been decreasing - it's currently around nine percent'
- Shani Bar Tuvia, Physicians for Human Rights Israel
“The number of Palestinians among medical students in Israel has been decreasing - it's currently around nine percent,” Shani Bar Tuvia, director of the health policy department at Physicians for Human Rights Israel, told MEE. “So nine percent cannot become 45 percent of the doctors.”
“The ministry is well aware of the fact that the Yatziv reform meant that fewer doctors will be licensed, and that they need to compensate for all these institutions that were disqualified,” Bar Tuvia said.
In addition to pouring resources into international recruitment, the ministry has tried to address the shortfall by opening new medical schools to train more students domestically.
This includes a facility in Ariel University - the only university located in a settlement - and another at Reichman University, the only private university in Israel.
“So those schools are almost irrelevant for Palestinians,” Bar Tuvia said.
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