Israel’s spectacular own goal as many citizens opt to emigrate

Every year, the Israeli government proudly publishes the number of new immigrants. Under Israel’s law of return, anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent is entitled to automatic Israeli citizenship. The law of return is core to the Zionist project of settling the so-called land of Israel with diaspora Jews and providing a haven for Jews worldwide. In Hebrew, Jewish immigration to Israel is called “aliyah” (ascent). The government organizes flights full of Jewish immigrants, which are often greeted with fanfare when they touch down in Tel Aviv.
The government does not disclose the number of Israelis who emigrate from the country every year. In Hebrew, emigration is known as “yerida” (descent). In recent years, more Israelis than ever have chosen to leave the country and either return to their home countries or establish new roots in other foreign states. Many Israelis of European origin, known as Ashkenazim, have dual citizenship and, thus, have options to live in other countries. Israelis who have made aliyah almost uniformly retain their former citizenship, making return straightforward.
Emigration has always been a touchy subject for the Israeli authorities. From 1948 to 1961, the government imposed harsh restrictions on emigration through an exit visa, which was often denied. By 1967, Middle East scholar Joseph Massad notes, more than 180,000 Israelis had left the country. This trend has quietly continued to this day. In 2003, the government estimated that more than 750,000 Israelis (out of roughly 6 million) lived permanently outside the country. Many chose to settle in North America or Europe. It is essential to remember that these numbers include Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, who leave the country for different reasons than Jewish citizens.
The current wave of emigration has been closely associated with the country’s recent political shifts and is much more focused on Jewish Israelis who are giving up on the country. With the election of the most right-wing government in Israel’s history and its program of highly controversial judicial reform that could entrench a rightist hold on the governance mechanism for decades to come, more Israelis are choosing to leave. Ironically, Israel is close to securing a visa waiver with the US. Historically, Israelis have been attracted to life in the US. Visa-free travel could result in a surge in Israelis attempting to establish permanent lives there.
Interviewed by The Times of Israel recently, one Israeli returning to his native Mexico captured the sentiment of many leaving the country. “In the past year, with all the craziness and everything, I realized where the country was going,” Daniel Schleider said. “And after the recent elections, my wife, who had been unconvinced, was the one who took the step and said now she understood where the public is going and what life is going to be like in the country. You could call it the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

The current wave of emigration has been closely associated with the country’s recent political shifts.

Joseph Dana

The sentiment that Israel is heading toward a failed democracy or an autocratic right-wing settler state is particularly hard for the country’s vaunted technology sector. In response to the judicial reform of the current government, several of Israel’s most powerful tech executives have either threatened to move their companies out of the country or have already moved. In February, the founder of the Tel Aviv-based artificial intelligence transcription startup and multibillion-dollar company Verbit announced that he would relocate his company to Texas and stop paying taxes over the government’s efforts to undermine judicial independence. Other prominent tech CEOs and investors have promised to follow suit when and if the reforms are passed.
After widespread protests against the judicial reform and even staunch warnings from vital allies like the US, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to pause Knesset votes on the reform package and seek a compromise with opposition parties. This has proven temporary, as Netanyahu recently announced that his government would continue to press forward after compromise talks failed.
Sensing the risk to Israel’s tech sector, Netanyahu has been touting recent investments by Intel into his chip research centers in Israel. This might end up amounting to standing under a waterfall with a bucket. Prominent Israeli tech companies can easily find new ecosystems worldwide. If the judicial reforms result in the predicted international backlash against the Israeli government, we will almost certainly see a real exodus of Israeli talent from the country regardless of investment by the likes of Intel and Google.
It is tempting to argue that the current wave of emigration from Israel results from the government and its ideas about judicial reform. However, the history of the Zionist project reveals deep discontent among Jewish communities worldwide and inside Israel since Zionism was first fashioned. The current government is merely a symptom of the much larger issue of the failure of Zionism to provide an equitable, safe and thriving homeland for the Jewish people. While the Israeli government will continue to do its best to repress stories of emigration, Israelis are taking matters into their own hands and leaving.

• Joseph Dana is a writer based in South Africa and the Middle East. He has reported from Jerusalem, Ramallah, Cairo, Istanbul and Abu Dhabi. He was formerly editor-in-chief of emerge85, a media project based in Abu Dhabi exploring change in emerging markets.
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