The repercussions of the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation on October 7th and the resulting state of panic and the breaking of the myth of the “invincible army” continue to sweep through Israel and its settlers at all levels.
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics was quoted by the Haaretz newspaper as saying that “the number of Jews who left Israel in 2015 (after the Battle of Al-Asif Al-Makoul) reached approximately 17000.”
Other Israeli statistical estimates from the same center stated that “about 800000 Israelis who live permanently in several countries do not want to return to Israel.”
Ma’ariv newspaper reported that more than 756000 Jews had left Israel by 2020 to live in other countries due to the deterioration of economic conditions feelings of inequality frustration with the stalled peace process and concerns about the escalation of Palestinian resistance operations and this was before the recent “Al-Aqsa Flood” battle.
These numbers indicate that the rates of displacement and reverse migration will increase and multiply gradually in the coming period due to the entrenched convictions among the Israelis that there is no security for them on this land that they forcibly took from its owners.
A significant displacement that is not being talked about
10 days after the start of the Al-Aqsa Flood battle the spokesman for the Israeli army admitted during a press conference that “about half a million Israelis have been internally displaced.”
Statements were made about evacuating all settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip of their inhabitants and more than 20 settlements near the Lebanese border were evacuated.
In the same context the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth quoted the head of the Israeli Hotel Association as saying that half of the rooms in Israeli hotels are used to accommodate families that were evacuated from settlements near the Gaza Strip.
Other factors of pre-war reverse migration
Professor Yuval Harari lecturer at the Hebrew University’s History Faculty attributed the escalation of the phenomenon of reverse Jewish migration to “the growing influence of the extremist right-wing religious movement in Israeli society its penetration into government ministries and its control over the reins of power.”
Meanwhile Adam Clare spokesman for the Peace Now movement believes that “the recent growth of this phenomenon is due to internal conflicts among Jews about the identity of Israel as well as the promotion of fears and a sense of insecurity with the intensification of the conflict with the Palestinians and the deadlock of any future political settlement.”
“Let’s Leave the Country Together” campaign
In the midst of the ongoing war that broke out after October 7th a campaign under the name “Let’s Leave the Country Together” was renewed calling on Israeli families through social media networks to search for destinations around the world for temporary or permanent residence while providing job opportunities and investment in business projects.
The campaign included for example large groups on the WhatsApp application the vast majority of whom are from the Israeli citizenship and some of them are Israelis residing outside the country and staying in different countries around the world especially in the United States Canada and Europe.
The group expanded its activities with the escalation of security tension and the absence of any signs for the end of the war and offered its assistance to anyone holding an Israeli passport not only to those with dual nationality who only possess a foreign passport.
Yaniv Gorlik one of the organizers of the campaign who manages it on the Facebook platform stated that about 5000 people from Israel had joined and their inquiries revolve around leaving and traveling abroad even temporarily until the end of the war including those inquiring about opportunities to obtain a work visa in European countries.
