AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Reverse migration from the Zionist regime is no longer merely a population movement that can be explained by travel or the search for better economic opportunities. Rather, since 2023, it has become a sign of a deeper tremor in the relationship between Zionist elites and the Zionist regime.
According to a report by Al Jazeera, prolonged wars, political crises, and declining confidence in the future have prompted broad segments of Zionists to consider leaving the occupied territories or take practical steps toward emigration. Official documents published by the Knesset Research and Information Center show that the number of Zionist emigrants from the occupied territories has increased since 2022 and remained at a high level in 2023 and 2024.
But the real danger of this phenomenon lies not only in the number of Zionist emigrants, but in the type of people leaving, including doctors, engineers, researchers, graduates of exact sciences, and technology developers. This means the loss of the human capital upon which the Zionist regime had built its image as a startup nation.
Official Statistics on Elite Departure
According to a document by the Knesset Research and Information Center, prepared by Ayla Eliyahu in May 2026, the average number of emigrants leaving the Zionist regime between 2009 and 2021 was approximately 40,500 per year.
But this figure increased to 59,400 in 2022, then reached 82,800 in 2023, and in 2024, despite a relative decline, it remained high at 69,500.
In contrast, the number of those who returned to the Zionist regime in 2024 was only 18,800, the lowest rate in recent years. As a result, the total negative migration of the Zionist regime between 2022 and 2024 is estimated at approximately 140,000 people.
A previous Knesset update report in October 2025 linked the increase in emigrant departures to October 2023 and suggested that the Al-Aqsa Storm operation may have played a role in this increase. However, the report adds that the number of departures between January and August 2024 remained close to the same period in 2023, at about 50,000 in both periods.
This indicates that emigration was not merely an immediate reaction to the start of the war, but has become a continuing trend after the initial shock of the war.
Decline in Returns; The Crisis Deepens
The crisis is not limited to the departure of individuals; the decline in the return of emigrants has also deepened it.
While the number of returnees to the Zionist regime was about 29,600 in 2022, this figure decreased to 24,200 in 2023 and to 18,800 in 2024.
This decline shows that the Zionist regime is no longer only facing the loss of individuals who might return quickly, but is facing a growing gap between the number of those who leave and those who decide to return.
Shaher Lotan warned in May 2026 in The Marker newspaper against exaggerating catastrophic narratives, but at the same time acknowledged that this phenomenon is real, painful, and concerning.
Citing data from the Central Bureau of Statistics of the Zionist regime, he announced that in 2024, about 83,000 Israelis were identified as long-term emigrants, while only 24,000 returned, a deficit of about 60,000 people.
Preliminary estimates indicate that this deficit decreased to about 50,000 in 2025, but remains high compared to the past.
Brain Drain; Doctors and Engineers at the Front of Emigration
The importance of these figures becomes even more apparent when the characteristics of the emigrants are examined.
The Knesset document shows that emigrants of working age have higher education levels than the general population and even returnees to the Zionist regime.
The proportion of bachelor's degree holders among emigrants is 1.5 times the societal average, master's degree holders twice as much, and doctorate holders 4.6 times their proportion in the Zionist regime's society.
The document also shows that about 6 percent of those who received academic degrees from higher education institutions of the Zionist regime between 1990 and 2018 had lived outside the occupied territories for at least three years or more by 2023.
This figure reaches 11.9 percent among doctorate holders.
Also, the rate of residence abroad among graduates of exact sciences and engineering is higher than among graduates of humanities and social sciences. This means this departure directly targets the main reservoir of high-tech, medicine, scientific research, and modern industries of the Zionist regime.
This Is Not Brain Drain; It Is Political Exile
An article by Sivan Klingbeil published in The Marker on April 21, 2026, presents a sharper picture of this phenomenon, describing it not as brain drain but as political exile.
This article examines examples of doctors, researchers, and entrepreneurs who left the occupied territories not for higher salaries, but because of a sense that the Israeli contract between themselves and the regime's government had been destroyed.
The article cites a study by Itay Ater, a professor at the Coller School of Management, Netai Bergman, and Doron Zamir on the new consequences of Zionist emigration.
According to this study, about 100,000 Zionists have left the Zionist regime over the past two years, an increase of more than 60 percent compared to the annual average for the period 2010 to 2018.
In 2023 and 2024, 949 doctors, 3,350 engineers, and more than 21,000 bachelor's graduates emigrated from the Zionist regime, of whom about 7,400 held degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Hundreds of doctorate holders have also left the Zionist regime.
The study adds that more than 75 percent of Zionist emigrants are under 40, meaning they are at the heart of their professional and productive lives.
According to a 2025 report by the Bank of the Zionist regime, 29 percent of emigrants are between 30 and 44 years old, while this age group's share of the total population is only 18 percent.
High-Tech; The Departure of Decision-Making Centers
In the technology sector, the picture is even more concerning.
Israel Wilman, writing in Yedioth Ahronoth on May 31, 2026, citing the 2026 state of the high-tech industry report published by the Zionist regime's Innovation Authority, wrote that this sector experienced a decline in research and development staff within the occupied territories for the first time in a decade.
The number of these staff decreased by about 3,500, and their share of the sector's total employees fell from 51 percent to 49 percent.
Data shows that only 62 percent of employees of private technology companies of the Zionist regime work within the occupied territories, with the rest mainly working in the United States.
Management and decision-making centers are also being transferred abroad. The number of senior executives within the Zionist regime has decreased by about 9.6 percent, while their number in the United States has increased.
Thus, external transfer is no longer limited to sales and marketing staff, but now includes managers and developers as well.
Despite the financial successes of the Zionist regime's technology sector in 2025, including $85 billion in high-tech exports, constituting 58 percent of this regime's total exports, Doron Bin, CEO of the Zionist regime's Innovation Authority, has described this situation as a critical crossroads.
He says that on the one hand, Zionist regime technology still attracts investment and builds leading companies, but on the other hand, part of the activities, human resources, and capital are being transferred outside the occupied territories.
Who Is Thinking of Leaving?
This phenomenon is not limited to those who have actually emigrated.
The Israeli Democracy Institute published a research report on November 23, 2025, titled "To Stay or to Leave?" which shows that about a quarter of Jews and nearly a third of Arabs in the occupied territories are thinking of leaving the Zionist regime temporarily or permanently.
Among Jews, the social and political divide is evident. 39 percent of seculars think of leaving, compared to only 3 percent of Haredim, and 36 percent of young people aged 18-34 think of emigrating.
Among political currents, more than 40 percent of leftists, 35 percent of centrists, and 19 percent of rightists think of leaving the Zionist regime.
Among Jews who assess the Zionist regime's situation as bad, 42 percent think of emigrating, while this figure is only 8 percent among those who consider the situation good.
The most important factors driving emigration include rising living costs, lack of a suitable future for children, and the security situation.
A Threat to the Future of the Zionist Regime
The Zionist regime's society's view of emigration has also changed.
According to the Israeli Democracy Institute report, 58 percent of Jews and 64 percent of Arabs believe that the increase in the number of emigrants poses a threat to the future of this regime.
But they believe that the departure of educated and specialized individuals, i.e., brain drain, constitutes a greater danger, with 64 percent of Jews holding this view.
This change shows that the Zionist regime's society has understood that the departure of a doctor, engineer, or researcher is not merely a personal decision, but constitutes a national loss.
However, there is still a kind of social acceptance of the decision to emigrate, especially when the reason is education, joining family, career advancement, or better income.
New Immigrant Emigration Has Also Increased
Alongside the departure of veteran Zionists, Knesset documents show that the Zionist regime is also facing difficulty in retaining new immigrants.
Between 2009 and 2024, about 445,000 new immigrants arrived in the Zionist regime, of whom 284,000 came from former Soviet Union countries.
But from 2022, the number of those who left Israel shortly after immigrating increased. In 2022, 18.1 thousand new immigrants left within a year of arrival, four times the previous year. In 2023, about 15.5 thousand left the Zionist regime within one year.
However, the Knesset document emphasizes that the departure of new immigrants is not the main reason for the increase in emigration, as the number of veteran Zionists leaving the Zionist regime has also increased. Thus, the crisis goes beyond a temporary wave of immigration and has affected the Zionist regime's society itself.
The Zionist Regime Is Losing Part of Its Productive Intelligence
Various reports and studies indicate that the Zionist regime is not facing an ordinary demographic migration, but rather the departure of forces capable of carrying the economy, technology, and scientific institutions of this regime.
Official statistics show increased departures and decreased returns, academic studies reveal the emigration of doctors and engineers, the Innovation Authority's report shows the transfer of technology developers and decision-making centers, and surveys indicate that the thought of leaving has become part of the public space.
For this reason, the war is not the sole cause of this crisis, but rather an accelerant. The crisis began with political divisions and judicial reforms, and then the war intensified the decline in confidence in the future.
Now the big question for part of the Zionist regime's society is whether this regime remains a suitable place to build a professional and family future?
The reality is that when Zionist doctors, programmers, and researchers leave the occupied territories, the Zionist regime is not just losing a few numbers in its population statistics; it is losing part of its intellectual and productive capacity.
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