More than 82,000 Israelis have left the country in 2024 as the government pressed ahead with its brutal war on Gaza, official data revealed on Tuesday, according to Israeli outlet Ynet News.
Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics reported that 82,700 individuals left Israel in 2024, while only 23,800 returned.
Although the bureau did not state specific reasons for the exodus, previous reports have linked the departures to Israel’s ongoing wars in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and now Yemen.
In September, the bureau disclosed partial information that 40,600 Israelis had left long-term in just seven months – a staggering 59 percent rise compared to the same period in 2023, when 25,500 departed.
On average, 2,200 more people per month left Israel in 2024 than the previous year.
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The brain drain of people, often highly skilled doctors and professionals, highlights a trend among Israel’s elite, who increasingly believe they have no future in the country. Without them, Israel’s own future could hang in the balance.
Israeli-born author renounces citizenship, calling it ‘a tool of genocide’
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Last month Avi Steinberg, an Israeli-born author, said that he had formally renounced his Israeli citizenship.
Justifying his decision in an article for the left-leaning news publication Truthout, Steinberg said that Israeli citizenship had “always been a tool of genocide” that legitimised settler colonialism.
“Israeli citizenship is predicated on the worst kinds of violent crimes we know of, and on a deepening litany of lies intended to whitewash those crimes,” he argued in the op-ed.
The author was born in Jerusalem to American parents and raised in an Orthodox setting. In 1993, his family moved back to the United States, where his father got a job as a director at Harvard University.
Steinberg cited a number of laws passed following Israel’s founding that legitimised colonialism and discrimination against Palestinians, including the 1948 Declaration of Independence, the Law of Return in 1950, and the 1952 Citizenship Law.
Growing disillusionment with Israel
One of the countries Israelis have been heading to is Germany.
A record 18,448 Israelis sought German citizenship in the first nine months of 2024, according to Germany’s Federal Ministry of the Interior, more than double the 9,178 applications submitted in 2023 and far surpassing the 5,705 from 2022.
Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics latest figures exclude Israeli citizens living in other countries, such as the US, indicating the true extent of the trend may be underreported.
The sharp rise in departures further underscores growing disillusionment with Israel, as its devastating war on Gaza and internal Israeli politicial crises drive many to seek stability abroad.
As of 2024, Israel’s population stood at 10.027 million, including 7.7 million Jews, 2.1 million Palestinian citizens, and 216,000 foreigners. However, population growth slowed sharply to 1.1 percent – down from 1.6 percent the previous year.
Meanwhile, a damning Palestinian report published on Tuesday confirmed that Gaza’s population had plummeted by 6 percent by the end of 2024, a direct consequence of Israel’s ongoing brutal assault on the Strip.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the war has left 45,541 Palestinians dead, at least 11,000 missing and believed to be under the rubble, and around 100,000 forced to flee Gaza as Israel’s campaign of destruction continues to devastate the enclave.
The population of Gaza had fallen to 2.1 million, the PCBS said in its end of year report.
The relentless assault continues in defiance of a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire.
In November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel is also facing genocide charges at the International Court of Justice for its actions in the besieged enclave.
