‘I don't recognise the country I grew up in anymore’: Some Israelis tempted by exile

The impressive Tel Aviv University campus is getting ready for the start of the academic year. At the cafeteria terrace, students greet each other among groups of soldiers who have come to visit the Museum of the Jewish People.

In his office, Itai Ater, an economist at the university’s Coller School of Management, does not hide his staunch opposition to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. In February 2026, the researcher and his team triggered a controversy by publishing a study based on government data showing that, since 2023, 50,000 Israeli graduates have been leaving the country each year.

Brain drain under Netanyahu’s government

The Israelis who emigrate are for the most part doctors or engineers and 80 percent of them are under 40 with high incomes.

“For us, it’s clear that such a jump can only be explained by an event that occurred in Israel,” Ater said. “We’ve seen a sharp increase in departures starting in the summer of 2023, before October 7. And we can attribute the beginning of this phenomenon to the judicial overhaul introduced by Netanyahu in January 2023 [a judicial reform bill aimed at limiting the powers of the Supreme Court].”

According to him, this brain drain is not driven by economic factors or by cuts in funding for public services, research, or innovation, but is primarily a reaction to the political situation.

“You look at what has happened in Israel over the past four years and it’s crazy, no matter how you look at it: October 7, the wars in Lebanon and Gaza, the reservists’ draft, Iran,” he said. “And on top of that, you look at the government allocating huge sums to ultra-Orthodox Jews. So, if you’re secular, you do your military service, you pay taxes, and you look into the future and ask yourself, ‘do I want to raise my kids here in Israel?’”

A country ‘gone mad’

Ater makes no secret of his left-wing political commitment and wants to warn the public of the consequences of this brain drain.

“The Israeli economy depends heavily on human capital. We don’t have natural resources, oil or things of the sort, unlike Venezuela or Iran … As a citizen and as an economist, I want Israel to become a sane country again – a normal country.”

He added that, as Israel’s image around the world deteriorates, academics “suffer from a lot of boycotts” and that some “research collaborations are terminated because we are from Israel”.

While 150,000 graduates have already packed their bags since 2023, a victory by the right and the ultra-nationalist far right in the October 27 elections could – in his view – lead to even more departures.

If the ruling coalition is re-elected, Tamar*, 32, a product manager at a company specialising in AI, said she would seriously consider leaving the country with her husband and her one-year-old son.

The “endless wars”, the influence of Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir and “Benjamin Netanyahu’s lies” have become unbearable, she said.

Read moreHow Netanyahu survived the political fallout from the October 7 attacks

“Because of the war, I can't sleep anymore,” she added. “My husband has served more than 400 days of reserve duty in the army for the past three years and I'm very angry at the government for allowing the ultra-Orthodox to avoid military service. I don’t recognise the country I grew up in anymore – even though my mother’s side of my family has lived in Jerusalem for 14 generations.”

A divisive government

As elections approach, Israelis are still traumatised by Hamas’ unprecedented attacks from October 7, 2023. Between those who constantly demand revenge and those who want to understand how such an attack could have happened, dialogue seems to have fractured. The right and the far right use a constant messianic and religious rhetoric to discredit anyone who opposes them.

During this year’s commemorations of the October 7 massacre in southern Israel, Yinon Magal, a journalist from Channel 14 – which very aggressively supports Netanyahu’s government – caused a scandal by asking loved ones of former Israeli hostages held in Gaza to apologise to the government.

The polemicist was targeting the authors of a collective book published in 2024,“Mr. Abandonment: the legacy of the man who forsook the hostages”, in which relatives of hostages criticised Netanyahu’s handling of the crisis.

Three years since Hamas October 7 attack: What did Netanyahu know?

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Read moreTrump endorses embattled Israeli PM Netanyahu ahead of October 27 election

The journalist called the authors “the most despicable people who live in the State of Israel”.  The sister of Yarden Bibas – one of the hostages whose wife and two children died in captivity – responded to Magal’s comments by stating: “These remarks are part of a deliberate campaign to incite hatred and sow the seeds of division for the sole purpose of keeping in power the person who, to this day, refuses to take responsibility for the greatest failure we have ever experienced.”

Liberals in right-wing crosshairs

In this toxic climate, Tamar feels she no longer knows “where this country is going” and is considering moving abroad if the same government is re-elected. 

“I love this country, but it’s become unbearable, I’m looking into my company’s offices abroad, in Europe and in the United States,” she said. “I know it won’t be easy because this government has destroyed our relationship with countries all over the world. I have family living in New Jersey who are now afraid to say they’re Jewish. If I leave, I hope it will be for a few years and not for the rest of my life … I’m not afraid of being called a traitor because my husband and I have done our military service.”

Like many Israelis, Tamar is frightened by the brutality of the Netanyahu government, which makes no secret of its hatred for the “Tel Aviv liberals”.

“My biggest fear is how can I raise my son here in Israel, when there are no liberal values and where a small number of religious fanatics control everything,” she said, adding that, in Israel, “saying you're on the left has become a bad word. I want to live in a democratic state.”

Maya*, a general practitioner from Tel Aviv whose husband also works in tech, came to the same conclusion as Tamar.

“These last four years, there was October 7, Iranian missiles hit Tel Aviv,” said the mother of three young children, the last of whom was nearly born in a shelter during a strike. “With war and the mobilisation of reservists, we’re shortstaffed in the healthcare, education, and early-childhood sectors. I feel violence creeping in everywhere – it's completely crazy.”

Intimidation and violence

For Maya, the driving force behind the polarisation of Israeli society is none other than Netanyahu, who was already in power when she was in sixth grade (she is now 42 years old).

With tears in her eyes, she said she fears for her parents’ safety, who have displayed signs in their window showing their support for The Democrats, the left-wing party that succeeded the Israeli Labor Party created by Israel’s founding fathers.

“My mother is 73, and for the past four years, she has taken part in every protest against Netanyahu,” Maya said. “The ones against judicial reform, the ones calling for the release of hostages in Jerusalem, and she was knocked down by a police officer on horseback. She’s a calm woman who wants to help others. And yet her photo was posted on social media because, as a lawyer, she defended Palestinians from the West Bank. I think this campaign was orchestrated by very powerful people.”

Drying her tears, Maya spoke about her upcoming with sadness.

“My husband really wants to leave, I do a little bit less,” she explained. “But he’s really worried. He’s worried that the election results will trigger violence in Israel and I think he’s right. Even if I don’t really see myself living in another country, I’ve been looking into where I could work. After the elections we’re going to visit friends who have moved to Portugal. We’re also thinking about Athens – many Israelis moved there after October 7 and it’s close to Israel.”

‘War crimes committed in my name’

Israel’s first elections since the October 7 attacks reveal a society fractured by fear and anger. The left, the centre, the right, and the far right are clashing over military service exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox, Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to create a commission of inquiry into the massacre committed by Hamas, and whether or not political parties representing Israeli Arabs should be included in a future opposition coalition.

Read moreNo longer the same Israel? October 7 and the future of the Jewish State

Maya also expressed deep unease when asked about the destruction of the Gaza Strip.

“I feel that, in my name and with money from my taxes, horrible war crimes are being committed,” she said. “It’s something that’s very difficult to bear and to put into words. I’m not ready to stop treating people like human beings because of the place they were born in or the language they speak; that’s the path that, morally, leads to hell. And men who come back from their reserve duty in the army are traumatised, become violent and are desperate because their professional activity is crumbling.”

On October 27, Tamar will vote for Gadi Eisenkot – the main opponent to Netanyahu, or former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett; while Maya will cast her ballot for Yair Golan’s Democrats – both with the hope of not having to leave their country.

*Tamar and Maya’s first names were changed at their request.

This article has been translated from the original in French.