Vast majority of Israelis abroad say 'no intention to return': Poll

News Desk

MAR 20, 2024

A staggering 80 percent of Israelis currently living outside the country say they do not intend to return to Israel, according to a recent survey conducted by the Hebrew University at the initiative of the World Zionist Organization (WZO).

The poll highlights that they refuse to return to the country “even though they feel insecure in their countries of residence.”

Ninety-six percent of nearly 2,000 respondents are Israeli passport holders living outside the country; 55 percent have been living abroad for more than 10 years, and another 19 percent have been living abroad for more than five years.

"Most of the Israelis do not plan on returning to Israel, and an adequate response must be provided for them, wherever they may be. We have to find the [young generation of leaders of​ Israelis abroad], nurture them, and provide them with the tools for coping with antisemitism around the world," the Chair of the WZO Department for Diaspora Activities, Gusti Yehoshua Braverman, told Hebrew media.

In response to widespread global support for Palestinian liberation since the start of Israel's campaign of genocide in Gaza, western leaders and news media have repeatedly echoed claims made by Zionist leaders that call any show of solidarity with Gaza or criticism of the Israeli state ‘anti-semitism.’

In the first few months following the historic Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on 7 October, nearly half a million Israelis left the occupied territories. Furthermore, the country saw a massive drop in the number of Jewish people migrating to Israel.

Even before the outbreak of the Israeli genocide in Gaza, the number of Israelis applying for foreign passports skyrocketed due to widespread discontent over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan for a judicial overhaul, which secular Israelis saw as a ‘threat to democracy.’

The surge saw the return of a longstanding Israeli fear that turmoil in Israel could lead to a ‘reverse Aliyah,’ or a mass exodus of Jews to other parts of the globe (the opposite of early 20th-century mass immigration, which led to the state’s formation).

https://thecradle.co/articles/vast-majority-of-israelis-abroad-say-no-intention-to-return-poll