Report: Half a million Israelis have fled occupied territories since Oct. 7

Nearly half a million Israelis have fled the occupied territories since the start of Israel’s brutal aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip early in October, a report says.

Press TV – Dec 8, 2023

The Population and Immigration Authority estimated that around 470,000 Israelis have fled since October 7, and it is unclear if they will return or not.

“Therefore, there is a negative migration of about half a million people, and this does not include thousands of foreign workers, refugees, and diplomats who left” the occupied territories, Zman magazine said.

That period also saw a decline of more than 70 percent in the number of Jews “immigrating” to Israel.

According to data from the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, only about 2,000 people “immigrated” to Israel between October 7 and November 29.

“This is equal to nearly 1,000 immigrants per month, compared to around 4,500 per month on average since the start of this year until the outbreak of the war,” Zman said.

That came as the war has taken a heavy toll on Israel’s economy. According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, one in three businesses has shuttered or is operating at 20 percent capacity. More than half of businesses also suffered over 50 percent loss in revenues.

Before the start of the war on Gaza, the number of Israelis applying for foreign passports had jumped amid widespread discontent over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan for a judicial overhaul.

Netanyahu introduced the plan in January, triggering months of unprecedented anti-regime protests, with critics describing the plan as a threat to the independence of the courts by the prime minister, who is on trial on graft charges.

Those in favor of the scheme allege that it introduces some balance in the power that is wielded by the different branches of the regime. Its opponents, on the other side of the ledger, say upon ratification, the plan would empower the ruling class to act in a more authoritarian fashion.

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

At least 16,248 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in the Israeli strikes.

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JTA — When Daniel Schleider and his wife, Lior, leave Israel next month, it will be for good — and with a heavy heart.

“I have no doubt I will have tears in my eyes the whole flight,” said Schleider, who was born in Mexico and lived in Israel for a time as a child before returning on his own at 18. Describing himself as “deeply Zionist,” he served in a combat unit in the Israeli army, married an Israeli woman, and built a career in an Israeli company.

Yet as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power, assembled a coalition that includes far-right parties and started pushing changes that would erode hallmarks of Israeli democracy, Schleider found himself booking plane tickets and locating an apartment in Barcelona. Spain’s language and low cost of living made the city a good fit, he said, but the real attraction was living in a place where he wouldn’t constantly have to face down the ways that Israel is changing.

Israel’s strength over its 75 years, Schleider said, is “the economy we built by selling our brains.… And yet, in less than half a year, we’ve managed to destroy all that.”…READ MORE

Martin comments: The Middle east war has gone well beyond “an eye for an eye”. And clearly it is not a popular situation for many Israelis or for Jews of the non-Zionist persuasion. In any event, Netanyahu’s bloody-minded insistence on wiping Palestine off the map has resulted in his own nation paying a heavy price. If people keep leaving, he’ll have a nice bit of “promised land” all to himself.