From our special correspondent in Tel Aviv –Since 2023, Israel has experienced an unprecedented brain drain. With the October 27 legislative elections approaching, many graduates are considering leaving the country if the right-wing and far-right coalition led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains in power.

The business district of Tel Aviv, Israel’s economic capital, where one million Israelis come to work every day. On the eve of the October 27 elections, part of the country’s liberal and intellectual elite feels threatened by right-wing parties. © David Gormezano, FRANCE 24 The impressive Tel Aviv University campus is getting ready for the start of the academic year. At the cafeteria terrace, students greet each other among groups of soldiers who have come to visit the Museum of the Jewish People.

In his office, Itai Ater, an economist at the university’s Coller School of Management, does not hide his staunch opposition to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. In February 2026, the researcher and his team triggered a controversy by publishing a study based on government data showing that, since 2023, 50,000 Israeli graduates have been leaving the country each year.

Brain drain under Netanyahu’s government The Israelis who emigrate are for the most part doctors or engineers and 80 percent of them are under 40 with high incomes.

“For us, it’s clear that such a jump can only be explained by an event that occurred in Israel” Ater said. “We’ve seen a sharp increase in departures starting in the summer of 2023, before October 7. And we can attribute the beginning of this phenomenon to the judicial overhaul introduced by Netanyahu in January 2023 [a judicial reform bill aimed at limiting the powers of the Supreme Court].”Professor Itai Ater in his office at Tel Aviv University. On the left is a photo of him at a protest against the Netanyahu government. © David Gormezano & Studio graphique FMM, FRANCE 24 According to him, this brain drain is not driven by economic factors or by cuts in funding for public services, research, or innovation, but is primarily a reaction to the political situation.

“You look at what has happened in over the past four years and it’s crazy, no matter how you look at it: October 7, the wars in Lebanon and Gaza, the reservists’ draft, Iran” he said. “And on top of that, you look at the government allocating huge sums to ultra-Orthodox Jews So, if you’re secular, you do your military service, you pay taxes, and you look into the future and ask yourself, ‘do I want to raise my kids here in Israel?’”A country ‘gone mad’Ater makes no secret of his left-wing political commitment and wants to warn the public of the consequences of this brain drain.

“The Israeli economy depends heavily on human capital. We don’t have natural resources, oil or things of the sort, unlike Venezuela… As a citizen and as an economist, I want Israel to become a sane country again – a normal country.”He added that, as Israel’s image around the world deteriorates, academics “suffer from a lot of boycotts” and that some “research collaborations are terminated because we are from Israel”.

While 150,000 graduates have already packed their bags since 2023, a victory by the right and the ultra-nationalist far right in the October 27 elections could – in his view – lead to even more departures.

On the streets of Tel Aviv, an election poster from the left-wing party The Democrats calling people to move away from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. © David Gormezano, FRANCE 24 If the ruling coalition is re-elected, Tamar*, 32, a product manager at a company specialising in AI, said she would seriously consider leaving the country with her husband and her one-year-old son.

The “endless wars”, the influence of Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir and “Benjamin Netanyahu’s lies” have become unbearable, she said.