Due to war & financial factors: 'Tsunami' of emigrations hits Israel, over 100,000 left since 2022

After two years of war, a new Knesset report published on Monday revealed a worrying picture: Since 2022, the number of those leaving Israel was around 125,000 higher than those who immigrated to the country in the same period.

The report was compiled by the Knesset’s Research and Information Center (RIC) and presented to the Immigration and Absorption Committee.

Israel’s net migration balance, counting those who leave without a clear intention to return, minus Israelis returning to the country for the long term, fell by 125,200 people between the beginning of 2022 and August 2024, said the report.

It is the largest-ever loss in the country’s history over such a short period.

The RIC’s Ayala Eliyahu said, “Since 2022 we have seen a clear rise in the number of Israelis choosing to leave the country for extended stays abroad, alongside a decline in the number of those choosing to return. In 2022, Israel's population decreased by 29,700 citizens; in 2023, by 58,600; and in 2024, up to August, by 36,900.”

The report showed that the trend began before the war. The period of 2022–2023 already saw a sharp rise in the number of Israelis leaving the country, as 59,400 Israelis left in 2022, an increase of 44% compared to the previous year.

In 2023, the number rose to 82,800, with a peak after October. The trend continued in 2024.

While many Israelis cancelled their planned short-term stays abroad after the start of the war, many of them decided to enlist in the IDF. The number of Israelis returning from a long stay abroad fell from 29,600 in 2022, to 24,200 in 2023 to only 12,100 returnees from January to August 2024.

The report did not list possible reasons for the exodus, however, the country was rattled by political infighting and massive street protests until Oct. 7, 2023, and since then, has been fighting a non-stop war on seven active fronts.

“Tens of thousands of Israelis left the country even before the war began, and the phenomenon has intensified since October 2023,” MK Vladimir Beliak (Yesh Atid) said at the meeting.

“Those who choose to emigrate are people who have a tremendous impact on Israel's economy, and their departure causes financial damage amounting to billions of shekels. A coherent policy must be developed to keep our best and brightest in Israel.”

The largest part of the emigrants left the Tel Aviv-Jaffa area (14%), followed by Haifa (7.7 %), Netanya (6.9 %) and Jerusalem (6.3 %). A slight majority of those leaving were men, and the largest part was aged between 30-49 years.

Committee Chair MK Gilad Kariv of the far-left Democrats Party blamed the government, lamenting that there is “no government program to encourage the return of Israelis who have left the country. Our committee intends to focus intensively on the issue of bringing Israelis back from abroad.”

“This is not just a wave of emigration — it's a tsunami of Israelis choosing to leave the country. I expect the Israeli government to recognize this trend and focus efforts on halting it… Today, about one million Israelis live in foreign countries around the world”

Eric Michaelson, Deputy Director-General for Immigration at the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, warned that his ministry is not equipped to take active measures to curb the exodus.

“I am not aware that we have any mandate to stop the process of people leaving the country. We work on behalf of Israelis living abroad to maintain contact with them through ‘Israeli houses,’ where tens of thousands of Israelis participate in activities — with the aim of eventually bringing them back to Israel. I am not aware of any internal planning within our ministry for preventing emigration.”