It's easier to leave Israel, Shira Z. Carmel thinks, by saying it's just for now. But she knows better.
For the Israeli-born singer and a growing number of relatively wealthy Israelis, the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack it broke any sense of safety and with it, Israel's founding promise: to be a safe haven for the Jewish people. That day, thousands of Hamas militants blew past the country's border defenses, killed 1,200 Israelis and dragged 250 more into Gaza in a siege that stunned Israel's army and shocked its country. is proud of her military prowess. This time, during what Israel calls 9/11, the army did not come for hours.
Ten days later, Carmel was pregnant, her husband and the baby boarded a flight to Australia, which was looking for people in her husband's role. And they spun the explanation to friends and family as something more than permanent – “displacement” is the easier term to swallow – well aware of the family pressure and shame that has cast a shadow over Israelis who leave for good
“We told them we're going to get out of the fire for a while,” Carmel said more than a year later from her family's new home in Melbourne. “It wasn't a hard 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 records published by destination countries such as Canada and Germany. There is concern that it 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 to Israel by 2024, according to Sergio DellaPergola, a statistician and professor emeritus at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Thousands of Israelis have chosen to pay the financial, emotional and social costs of moving out since the October 7 attack, according to government statistics and families who spoke to The Associated Press in recent months after emigrating. to Canada, Spain and Australia.
Israel's population continues to grow to 10 million people. But 2024 may end with more Israelis leaving the country than entering. That's even as Israel and Hezbollah reached a precarious position fire near the border with Lebanon and Israel and Hamas inches from stopping in Gaza.
Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics estimated in September that 40,600 Israelis left long-term over the first seven months of 2024, an increase of 59% over the same period a year earlier, when 25,500 left a person Each month, 2,200 more people left this year than in 2023, the bureau said.
Israel's Ministry of Immigration and Acceptance, which does not deal with people leaving, said that more than 33,000 people have moved to Israel since the start of the war, roughly the same rate as in previous years. The interior minister declined to comment for this story, a spokesman said.
Other signs also point to the departure of the Israelis from the October 7 attacks. Gil Fire, deputy director of the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, said that some of his star specialists with fellowship posts for a few years in other countries began to worry 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 will wait another year, maybe two years, maybe more.'
Fire says it is “concerning” enough for him to plan personal visits with these doctors to try to lure them back to Israel.
Michal Harel, who moved with her husband to Toronto in 2019, said the phone call started almost immediately after the attacks – with other Israelis seeking advice on moving to Canada. On 23 Nov.
Not everyone in Israel can just pack up and move abroad. Many of those who have made the move have foreign passports, jobs at multinational corporations or can work remotely. People have even less choice in Gaza, where local health officials say more than 45,000 people have been killed. Harel said the site has received views from 100,000 unique visitors and 5,000 direct calls in 2024 alone.
Aliya – the Hebrew term for immigration, literally the “ascension” of Jews into Israel – has always been part of the country's plan. But “yerida” – the term used for leaving the country, literally the “descent” of the Jews from Israel to the diaspora, certainly not.
Sacred trust and social contract took root in Israelite society. The terms go – or go – like this: Israeli citizens would serve in the army and pay high taxes. In return, the army would keep them safe. At the same time, it is the duty of every Jew to live, work and fight for the survival of Israel.
“Emigration was a risk, especially in the early years (when) there were problems of nation-building,” said Ori Yehudai, a professor of Israel studies at Ohio State University and author of “Leaving Zion,” a history of Israel's emigration. people still feel 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 “Handmaid's Tale” dress that became part of the protests face of the government in 2023. She was scared as a new mother, and pregnant, due to the attack of Hamas. This was not the life she wanted.
At the same time, Australia cried. Carmel's brother had lived there for two decades. The couple had the same thing as a green card because of Carmel's husband's occupation. Basic logic, she says, marked a shift. They were able to catch a free flight with seven hours notice.
And yet, Carmel recalls the frenzied hours before the flight in which she said to her husband in the privacy of their bedroom: “My God, are we to- Really doing this? “
They decided not to decide. Pack them lightly. But weeks in Australia turned into months, and the couple decided to have their baby there. They told their families back in Israel that they were staying “for now.”
“We're not defining it as 'forever,'” Carmel said Tuesday. “But we definitely live in the future. “
