Thousands of Jews have left Israel since the October 7 attacks

Leaving Israel is easier, thinks Shira Z. Carmel, saying it’s just for now. But she knows better.

For the Israeli-born singer and a growing number of relatively well-off Israelis, the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack It shattered any sense of security and, with it, Israel’s founding promise: to be the world’s safe haven for Jews. That day, thousands of Hamas militants blew up the country’s border defenses, killing 1,200 Israelis and dragging 250 more into Gaza in a siege that caught the Israeli army by surprise and stunned a nation that prides itself on its military prowess. This time, during what became known as 9/11 Israel, the army did not arrive for hours.

Ten days later, a pregnant Carmel, her husband and their young son boarded a flight to Australia, which was looking for people in her husband’s profession. And they presented the explanation to friends and family as something more than permanent – “relocation” is the easier term to swallow – well aware of the family tension and shame that has shadowed Israelis leaving forever.

“We told them we were going to get out of the line of fire for a while,” Carmel said more than a year later from her family’s new home in Melbourne. “It wasn’t a difficult decision. But it was very difficult to talk to them about it. It was even difficult to admit it to ourselves.”

Thousands of Israelis have left the country since October 7, 2023, according to government statistics and immigration counts published by destination countries such as Canada and Germany. There are concerns about whether this will lead to a “brain drain” in sectors such as medicine and technology. Migration experts say it is possible that people leaving Israel will exceed the number of immigrants arriving in Israel in 2024, according to Sergio DellaPergola, a statistician and professor emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Thousands of Israelis have chosen to pay the financial, emotional and social costs of moving since the Oct. 7 attack, according to government statistics and families who spoke to The Associated Press in recent months after immigrating to Canada, Spain and Australia.

Israel’s population continues to grow to reach 10 million people. But it is possible that the year 2024 will end with more Israelis leaving the country than entering. This even when Israel and Hezbollah reached a fragile ceasefire on the border with Lebanon and Israel and Hamas are slowly moving toward a pause in Gaza.

Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics estimated in September that 40,600 Israelis left long-term during the first seven months of 2024, a 59% increase from the same period a year earlier, when 25,500 people left. Monthly, 2,200 more people left this year than in 2023, the office reported.

The Israeli Ministry of Immigration and Absorption, which does not deal with departures, said more than 33,000 people have moved to Israel since the start of the war, roughly on par with previous years. The Home Secretary declined to comment for this story, a spokesman said.

Other clues also point to a notable Israeli departure since the October 7 attacks. Gil Fire, deputy director of Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center, said some of his star specialists with fellowships for a few years in other countries began to hesitate about returning.

“Before the war, they always came back and it wasn’t really considered an option to stay. And during the war, we started to see a change,” he said. “They told us, ‘We’ll stay one more year, maybe two years, maybe more.'”

Fire says it’s “a matter of concern” enough to plan in-person visits to these doctors to try to lure them back to Israel.

Michal Harel, who moved with her husband to Toronto in 2019, said that almost immediately after the attacks, the phone started ringing and other Israelis sought advice on moving to Canada. On Nov. 23, 2023, the couple created a website to help Israelis navigate the move, which can cost at least 100,000 Israeli shekels, or about $28,000, Harel and other Israeli relocation experts said.

Not everyone in Israel can simply pack up and move abroad. Many of those who have taken the step have foreign passports, jobs in multinational corporations or can work remotely. People in Gaza, where local health officials say more than 45,000 people have died, have even fewer options. Harel reported that the site received visits from 100,000 unique visitors and 5,000 direct contacts in 2024 alone.

Aliya – the Hebrew term used for immigration, literally the “ascension” of Jews to Israel – has always been part of the country’s plan. But “yerida,” the term used to refer to leaving the country, literally the “descent” of Israel’s Jews into the diaspora, emphatically has not been.

A sacred trust and social contract took root in Israeli society. The terms are – or were – like this: Israeli citizens would serve in the army and pay high taxes. In exchange, the army would keep them safe. In the meantime, it is the obligation of every Jew to stay, work and fight for the survival of Israel.

“Emigration was a threat, especially in the early years (when) there were nation-building problems,” said Ori Yehudai, a professor of Israel studies at Ohio State University and author of “Leaving Zion,” a history of Israeli emigration. . “People still feel like they have to justify their decision to move.”

Shira Carmel says she has no doubts about her decision. She had long opposed the Netanyahu government’s efforts to reform the legal system and was one of the first women to don the blood-red robe from “The Handmaid’s Tale” that became a fixture at anti-government protests. 2023. I was terrified. as a new and pregnant mother, during the Hamas attack. This was not the life she wanted.

Meanwhile, Australia beckoned. Carmel’s brother had lived there for two decades. The couple had the equivalent of a green card due to Carmel’s husband’s profession. The basic logic, he says, pointed toward the move. They were able to catch a free flight seven hours early.

And yet, Carmel remembers the frantic hours before the flight when she said to her husband in the privacy of their bedroom: “My God, are we really doing this?”

They decided not to decide. They packed light. But the weeks in Australia turned into months and the couple decided to have the baby there. They told their families in Israel that they would stay “for now.”

“We don’t define it as ‘forever,'” Carmel said Tuesday. “But we will surely stay for the foreseeable future.”