Some Israelis weigh leaving if Netanyahu’s coalition wins October 27 election

Some Israelis interviewed in Tel Aviv are considering leaving the country if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition wins the October 27 legislative election, France 24 reported on October 20. Their decisions remain conditional, but their concerns come amid a documented rise in departures from Israel since 2023.

Tamar, a 32-year-old product manager, said she would seriously consider moving abroad with her husband and one-year-old son if the governing coalition is re-elected. France 24 changed her first name at her request. She said she was looking into positions at her company’s offices in Europe and the United States.

Why Maya is considering work abroad

Another interviewee, identified by the changed first name Maya, said her husband wanted to leave and she had begun looking into where she could work. She feared the election result might trigger violence, although she struggled to imagine living elsewhere. The couple planned to visit friends who had moved to Portugal after the vote, France 24 reported.

Maya also voiced distress over the destruction in Gaza and what she believes is being done in her name. She said she intended to vote for Yair Golan’s Democrats. Her concerns, like Tamar’s, describe individual choices facing two households; they do not establish how many voters will leave after the election.

What the university’s departure figures measure

Tel Aviv University economist Itai Ater and colleagues studied emigration using migration records alongside higher-education, health ministry and tax-authority data. Their university reported that 268,509 Israeli citizens left for at least three consecutive months during 2023–2025. That count includes temporary absences and should not be read as a total of permanent emigrants.

France 24 reported the team’s estimate that about 50,000 Israeli graduates had left each year since 2023. Ater told the outlet that departures began rising in summer 2023, before the October 7 attacks, and attributed the initial increase to Netanyahu’s proposed judicial overhaul. That political explanation is Ater’s interpretation of the trend.

The university said a 12-month departure measure for 2025 would become available only in early 2027. It estimated 45,000 to 50,000 departures lasting at least a year in 2025 by extrapolating from its three-month data. The distinction matters when assessing the scale of lasting emigration as voters prepare for the October 27 election.