Want to move to Israel, well good luck without being a billionaire, a new viral video on TikTok declares, pointing out one of the biggest problems facing Israel: The high cost of living.
The video in question, made by user didiscissorhands which already boasts over 186,000 watches and over 20,000 likes, is just eight seconds long and is done in line with the trend of pointing out things accompanied by the song Che La Luna.
Like other videos in this trend, Didi presents the topic at the start, in this case "Things you need to do before moving to Israel." But while some viewers may hope to see a video walking one through the process of filing out the necessary forms and gathering the right documents ahead of an impending battle with the Interior Ministry bureaucracy, or tips on how to pack everything before moving across the world, Didi instead only gives just one step that needs to be done before moving to Israel.
And sorry to disappoint you, but for most of the world, that one step is going to be extremely difficult: "Become a f***ing BILLIONAIRE."
She underlined the severity of this point in the caption of her video: "Nobody told me a cocktail is NIS 70."
@didiscissorhands Nobody told me a cocktail is 70₪ #israel #fypシ ♬ Che La Luna - Louis Prima with Sam Butera & The Witnesses
Her video circulated throughout Israeli TikTok, with many commenting in agreement with Didi's observations.. Though one user also poked fun at some contemporary niche issues in Israeli politics with the comment "Hadar Muchtar has entered the chat," referencing the young political figure who rose to popularity over Israeli TikTok by making videos about high prices in Israel.
Others discussed similar high prices, with one user saying that a hamburger is NIS 50 while in the US it is just $3. Didi responded to this in disbelief, demanding to know where a burger is NIS 50 in Israel - since in her city, she says, it's around NIS 90.
Israel and the cost of living: High prices, low enthusiasm
Israel's cost of living and high prices are infamous, and have boiled over into almost crisis levels over recent years. Many places sell products for very high rates, especially those that are imported.
This has become a growing issue, one that Prime Minister Yair Lapid hopes to alleviate with his incoming food reform set to hit in January to eliminate or lessen many food standards to make prices much cheaper and open the market up to more competition.
However, other parts of the cost of living, such as the housing issue, are much more difficult to tackle.
The Jerusalem Post has reached out to Didi for comment.