Azealia Banks Has Moved to Israel

After years of burning and rebuilding her bridge to Israel, Azealia Banks has now moved to the other end of it.

The “212” rapper hard-launched her relocation to the country on social media this week, along with a photo of what appears to be her new home in Tel Aviv.

“Moving in,” she wrote on Twitter/X. “If you would have told me years ago id end up moving to Tel Aviv and liking it, I would have said youre crazy.”

In a subsequent post, she praised Israel’s arts circuit and even shared that she is working on a new album.

“Its ironically just been easier to create here because Israel’s arts scene is really mature,” she wrote. “People arent witholding stems and holding grudges about social issues and its freeing. Everyone in Israel thinks my political opinions fucking suck and think i have trash taste in men but no one is trying to sabotage me for that.”

Yet, all her political opinions criticizing Israel from just a few months ago have now disappeared from her X profile.

Her on-again, off-again relationship with the country goes back to 2018, when she performed at Barby in Tel Aviv. Soon after, Banks said she experienced racist treatment at restaurants and shops as well as at Ben Gurion Airport.

“I will never ever ever ever ever go to Israel again,” she wrote at the time on her old X account. “I didn’t get paid enough to put up with the social culture in Israel tbh. I won’t be coming back unless it’s for some real money.”

By 2025, her position had shifted dramatically. Amid Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, she posted a series of tweets about how Black people should not be supporting Palestine and even explicitly stated, “I’m a Zionist.”

“The Arab world is not gonna push this oppressed victim shit off like they aren’t RAMPANTLY enslaving and degrading Africans behind closed doors,” she wrote during the spree.

There is historical grounding for the broader issues she invoked, though not for applying them wholesale to Palestinians. Historians have documented centuries of African enslavement across parts of the Islamic world, while anti-Black prejudice also developed in some Arab societies. However, that is considerably broader than Palestine, which has its own longstanding Afro-Palestinian community.

Banks returned to Israel for the first time in seven years, framing the visit around the second anniversary of the October 7th attacks. During her trip, she went to the site of the 2023 Nova festival before performing in Tel Aviv while draped in the country’s flag and wearing a Star of David.

That enthusiasm proved short-lived. Amid the war with Iran in March, she abruptly turned on Israel again and blamed the country for dragging the United States into the conflict.

“On second thought, FUCK ISRAEL,” she wrote. “I actually HOPE Netanyahu is dead. We should strike a big [deal] with Iran and just go to war with Israel and keep the petrodollar strong.”

That reversal didn’t last particularly long either. By September, Banks was once again questioning Black solidarity with Palestinians in a post that is still on her profile.

“Its really the joint struggle of black solidarity with palestine that just doesnt really sit right with me,” she wrote. “Why would any modern black american want to trauma bond with a group that has nothing to offer us and weve spent no time building anything with?”

Banks is scheduled to perform at the Tel Aviv Amphitheater on October 8th.

Moving in. If you would have told me years ago id end up moving to Tel Aviv and liking it, I would have said youre crazy 🤪 🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/dIDiZ7I0gH

— AZEALIA BANKS (@iiwasinthee212) October 6, 2026

Thats how you know a city is alive …
The movement of people in and out of a city.
So many Israelis want to be in
New York and so many New Yorkers want to be in Tel Aviv. https://t.co/kes2ek3d1w

— AZEALIA BANKS (@iiwasinthee212) October 6, 2026

Tel Aviv to New York is the exact same distance as New York to LA

Yall are acting like i moved to Australia lol.

Im 5 hours away and here making my album FINALLY.
I found some real camaraderie and some really cool music crew here and its ironically just been easier to create…

— AZEALIA BANKS (@iiwasinthee212) October 6, 2026