Record Israeli emigration exposes deep crisis at heart of the Zionist project

Israel is facing an unprecedented wave of emigration, with more than 150,000 citizens leaving the country over the past two years, a development that analysts say poses a major structural challenge to the Zionist project and the state’s long-term viability. The scale, causes and political implications of this exodus were examined in detail in a recent report by +972 Magazine, which documented a growing loss of faith in the Israeli state among those choosing to leave.

Drawing on official Israeli data, the report notes that emigration surged following the return of Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government and accelerated sharply after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack and Israel’s subsequent genocidal assault on Gaza. For the first time since its establishment, Israel has recorded more long-term emigrants than returnees.

Figures from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) show that in 2023 alone, 82,800 Israelis left the country for extended periods, a 44 per cent increase on the previous year. Departures spiked immediately after October 2023 and continued throughout 2024, with nearly 50,000 Israelis leaving in the first eight months of that year. In 2025, a further 70,000 citizens departed, while only 19,000 returned. Since the current government took office, more than 200,000 Israelis are estimated to have left.

As +972 Magazine notes, this trend strikes at a foundational pillar of Zionist ideology. Since 1948, Israel has prioritised Jewish demographic expansion as essential to its survival, combining efforts to boost birth rates with policies designed to attract Jewish immigrants through the Law of Return and extensive state incentives. At the same time, the state has historically stigmatised Jewish emigration, labelling those who leave yordim — “those who go down” — and denying citizens abroad the right to vote.

While Israel today hosts nearly half of the world’s Jewish population, waves of emigration have periodically followed moments of crisis, including economic downturns and major wars. What distinguishes the current wave, however, is its scale, speed and political character. According to the +972 report, many Israelis are leaving abruptly, purchasing one-way tickets with little notice and with no intention of returning.

READ: Report: Nearly 0.5m Israelis left Israel after 7 October

The report traces the origins of this departure to widespread opposition to Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul and the consolidation of far-right, religious-nationalist power well before October 2023. However, Israel’s assault on Gaza transformed emigration into what many of those interviewed described as flight, driven by fear, moral rupture and a collapse of trust in state institutions.

Those cited by +972 pointed to the state’s failure to protect civilians on 7 October, the open normalisation of genocidal rhetoric within Israeli society, the deterioration of public services, and concerns over military conscription for their children. Others said they left in order to avoid complicity in what international legal experts and human rights organisations increasingly describe as genocide.

The demographic profile of those leaving presents an additional strategic concern for the Israeli state. Emigrants are disproportionately young, secular, educated and economically mobile — sectors crucial to military manpower, tax revenue and the technology-driven economy. Israeli media and academics have long warned of “brain drain”, but the current wave far exceeds previous patterns.

At the same time, the +972 report emphasises that emigration remains a privilege unevenly distributed across Israeli society. Many of those able to leave hold dual citizenship or possess the economic means to relocate, advantages denied to most Palestinians and many non-Ashkenazi Jews. Critics argue that Israeli citizenship itself functions as a form of colonial privilege, allowing members of the dominant group to abandon the project when its political and moral costs become unbearable.

Despite state-funded efforts to maintain influence over Israeli communities abroad, including government-backed initiatives across Europe, the scale of departures has raised alarms within Israel’s policy establishment. Population growth slowed in 2025 for the first time in decades, driven primarily by emigration alongside declining fertility rates and war-related mortality.

For a state that defines itself as a safe haven for Jews worldwide, the fact that tens of thousands of citizens are choosing to leave during what leaders describe as an “existential war” exposes a central contradiction. As one former Israeli journalist quoted by +972 put it, if the state cannot protect civilians, restrain mass violence or offer a future not defined by permanent war, “there’s really nothing left to fix.”

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20260109-record-israeli-emigration-exposes-deep-crisis-at-heart-of-the-zionist-project/