From +972 Magazine
Over 150,000 citizens have left the country in the past two years alone — many of them with a one-way ticket and no plans of returning.
From Israel’s establishment in 1948, its leaders viewed the expansion of the Jewish population as essential to the survival of the Zionist project: a way to ensure a lasting demographic majority over the Palestinian population and a steady supply of soldiers to defend the state’s borders. Alongside efforts to increase Jewish birth rates, the promotion of Jewish immigration has been central to this strategy. Near-automatic citizenship under the Law of Return, coupled with financial incentives, were designed to draw Jews from across the globe and anchor them permanently in the new state.
The flip side of this policy was the state’s response to those who left, which was often openly hostile. Jewish emigrants were officially referred to as yordim — “those who go down” — a term coined in opposition to olim, who were said to “ascend” by immigrating to Israel.
The moral hierarchy embedded in this language framed emigration as a personal and national failure rather than a neutral life choice (it is worth noting, for example, that Israel does not permit citizens abroad to vote in elections, making this division concrete). In 1976, then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin famously dismissed Jewish emigrants as “the fallout of weaklings,” a remark that captured the state’s prevailing contempt for those who choose to leave.
With nearly half of the world’s Jewish population now living in Israel, this project can, in many respects, be deemed a success. Yet Israel’s history has also been marked by recurring waves of emigration, usually triggered by moments of crisis. Economic downturns, such as the recession of 1966–67, and security shocks like the 1973 Yom Kippur War, prompted significant numbers of Jews to leave the country.
Emigration became an even more contentious issue in Israeli public discourse during the early 2000s, when the state began to more closely track departures. This period, which coincided with the Second Intifada, saw increasing emigration of young, secular, middle-and upper-class Israelis — the so-called “brain drain.” The phenomenon generated widespread concern among Israeli academics and in the mainstream media, where it was largely framed in cultural and economic terms. In response, the state launched taxpayer-funded campaigns aimed at encouraging emigrants to return, marking a shift away from its earlier singular focus on attracting Jews who had never lived in Israel.
Over the past two years, however, a wholly different wave of departure has taken hold, one that represents a decisive break from earlier understandings of emigration. The shift began well before October 7, driven in part by the far-right government of Benjamin Netanyahu and its efforts to weaken the judiciary. But the exodus that followed the Hamas attack and Israel’s subsequent genocidal assault on Gaza transformed departure into something more abrupt and urgent. Increasingly, Israelis are not simply leaving but fleeing — buying one-way tickets with only days’ notice, often with no intention of returning.
Hila Amit is an independent researcher and writer. Her 2018 book “A Queer Way Out: The Politics of queer Emigration from Israel” showed that sexual orientation and left-wing political affiliation play significant roles in decisions to leave Israel. The book received the 2019 Association for Middle East Women’s Studies Book Award. She is the author of two works of fiction, and of the queer feminist Hebrew learning book “Hebrew for All”.
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