‘I don't recognise the country I grew up in anymore’: some Israelis are 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].” Professor Itai At...