“How do you all find each other? How do you manage to get visas for business work to other West Asian countries?” asked the backpacker.

Foreign ministry officials are alert to the problems that come with the two categories. They say they are aware of the kinds of local resentment building around ‘Little Israels’, where youngsters congregate on their India circuit. In the past year an orientation programme has been formulated for those planning extended stays in India. Also a “peace backpackers” programme is putting young Israelis in touch with NGOs in India.

For the frequent business traveller, say officials, the paper stamp visa is still given as an increasingly rare exception. The “Israeli stamp stigma” refers to the problems of obtaining a visa to many regimes in the region on a passport that carries record of entry to Israel.

Once Israel was more accommodating of requests that visas and immigration/emigration be stamped on pieces of paper. Now, say officials here in Jerusalem, requests had better be well rationalised — by and large, reasons of work imperatives carry weight, not plans for casual travel.

For the backpacker, other support services are becoming available. Insurance cover for backpackers that includes evacuation in case of emergency is being offered. In fact, one of Israel’s leading novelists, A B Yehoshua, wrote a bestselling novel 10 years ago about just such an emergency. Translated into English as Open Heart, the novel tracks a couple’s transformative trip to India to bring their ailing daughter back.

... contd.