PNN – Despite the departure of tens of thousands of Zionists from the occupied territories over the past three years, Netanyahu is trying to use the recent attack on a Jewish celebration in Sydney, Australia, as a pretext to project a sense of security in the occupied territories.
Just hours after the attack on December 14, 2025 on a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, which resulted in the killing and injury of a number of Jews, Benjamin Netanyahu claimed during a ceremony at the Zionist regime’s police academy: The safest place for Jews in the world is Israel. He warned that more attacks will come—statements that observers view as contrary to reality and part of Netanyahu’s familiar tactic of exploiting any anti-Jewish incident around the world to encourage Jewish immigration to the occupied territories.
However, statistics tell a completely different story. According to a report published in October 2025 by the Knesset Research and Information Center (the parliament of the Zionist regime), more than 125,000 Zionists left the occupied territories between 2022 and mid-2024, a figure described as the largest loss of human capital in the history of the regime.
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The Sydney attack and its exploitation to reproduce the “victim” narrative
Gilad Kariv, head of the Knesset’s Immigration Committee, described the phenomenon as a “tsunami” and warned: This is no longer a trend; it is a tsunami. Many Zionists are building their futures outside Israel, and fewer and fewer are returning. The Hebrew-language outlet Walla also questioned this tactic in a critical report titled Is Israel the safest place for Jews? Statistics contradict Netanyahu’s claim.
This raises the question of how extensive the flight of Zionists from the occupied territories has become in recent years that Netanyahu is struggling to overcome the crisis of reverse migration.
From the anti–judicial overhaul movement to multi-front wars; an unceasing exodus
The ongoing departure of Zionists—both elites and others—from the occupied territories can be traced through three distinct phases, each accompanied by specific political and security developments.
The first phase began with the widespread protest movement against Netanyahu’s judicial reforms in early 2023. According to research by scholars at Tel Aviv University published in Yedioth Ahronoth, the wave of Zionist departures intensified sharply in January 2023. This period, marked by unprecedented street protests, showed that a segment of Zionists had lost hope in the country’s political future.
The second phase took shape with Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, 2023, and the outbreak of the Gaza war. This event not only caused a major security shock but also eroded the trust of many Zionists in the notion of guaranteed security. According to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics of the Zionist regime, in 2024 alone around 83,000 Zionists left the occupied territories, while only about 32,000 people immigrated to them.
The third phase continued with the expansion of aggressive attacks against Lebanon and Syria and hostile attacks on Iran during the current year. According to statistics published by Yedioth Ahronoth in September 2025, about 79,000 Zionists left the occupied territories over the previous year, while only 21,000 returned. The Times of Israel reported in October 2025 that this trend is likely to continue until the end of the year, with the total number of departures between 2022 and 2025 exceeding 170,000.
As an example, media outlets of the Zionist regime recently reported that despite the passage of a year since the ceasefire, about half of the residents of the Zionist settlement city of Kiryat Shmona on the northern border of occupied Palestine with Lebanon have not returned to their homes, and no one is attending to those who have returned either.
What turns this reverse migration into a strategic crisis is the profile of those leaving. According to research published in Hebrew outlets including Calcalist and Yedioth Ahronoth, the majority of these individuals are young people, technology elites, specialist physicians, and holders of doctoral degrees.
In the first seven months of 2024, Zionists transferred $7 billion in deposits abroad, indicating capital flight alongside brain drain. One of the key indicators of this trend is the sharp rise in applications for foreign citizenship. According to Germany’s Interior Ministry, in the first nine months of 2024 more than 18,000 Zionists applied for German citizenship, more than double the figure in 2023. Based on research estimates published in Hebrew media, around one million Zionists hold foreign passports or are eligible to obtain them.
From a strategic threat to failure in attracting Jews; the heavy costs of flight
Experts believe that the economic and social repercussions of this reverse migration go far beyond simple statistics. According to a Tel Aviv University study, the departure of highly skilled labor over a 20-month period (January 2023 to September 2024) cost the Zionist regime about 1.5 billion shekels (approximately $400 million) in lost tax revenues. This figure becomes even more significant when considering that Israel’s technology sector, despite accounting for less than 8 percent of the workforce, generated about 35 percent of the country’s total income tax revenues in 2021.
Alongside the economic blow, the demographic consequences are also significant. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, the population growth rate fell from 1.6 percent in 2023 to around 1.1 percent in 2024, the lowest level in recent decades. This decline is largely the result of a negative migration balance. The population of Zionists living in the occupied territories reached 10.1 million in September 2025, but this figure also includes 216,000 foreigners with long-term residence who were counted in the statistics for the first time—an issue seen as an attempt to conceal the real decline in the Jewish population.
At the same time, Netanyahu’s efforts to attract Jews from the diaspora have met with a major failure. According to data released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in November 2025, immigration to the occupied territories under the Law of Return fell by about 30 percent in 2024 compared with 2023.
The Times of Israel reported in September this year that the number of new immigrants does not even replace half of those leaving. This comes despite Netanyahu’s repeated claims that during wars people come to Israel to help. However, Sergio DellaPergola, a demography expert of the regime, told The Times of Israel that even with a relative increase in immigration from Western countries, the figures are “very modest” and far from historical peaks.
One of the clearest manifestations of insecurity is the mass evacuation of settlers. More than 60,000 people have been evacuated from the northern and southern border areas, and many still fear returning even after more than a year. This situation stands in stark contrast to the claim of being the “safest place.”
Eric Michelson, a senior director at the Ministry of Immigration, admitted during an October 2025 Knesset session: We are not a ministry to prevent reverse migration, and we do not have the authority to stop it. This admission shows that Netanyahu’s cabinet has no plan to deal with this “tsunami.”
Sydney; a pretext to conceal the absolute insecurity of the Israeli regime
Only hours after the armed attack by a father and son influenced by ISIS on the Jewish Hanukkah celebration, Netanyahu swiftly moved to politically exploit the incident. In an official statement from his office, he claimed: The safe place for the world’s Jews is Israel. He added in a threatening tone: We know that more attacks will come.
Hebrew-language media reacted to Netanyahu’s worn-out and propagandistic claim. In a report titled Is Israel the Safest Place for Jews? Statistics Contradict Netanyahu’s Claim, Walla wrote: Netanyahu invites Jews abroad to come, but statistics and the security reality call the claim of being the safest place into question.
Anthony Loewenstein, an Australian Jewish activist, described Netanyahu as “a shameful person” in an interview with Democracy Now and said: What Israel is doing in Palestine endangers everyone, especially Jews. By using Jewish identity as a justification for horrific violence, Israel fuels antisemitism on a global level.
The fundamental contradiction in Netanyahu’s claim is that the Zionist regime, throughout its 77 years of fabricated existence, has never experienced real security. More than 60,000 evacuated settlers who cannot return to their homes, thousands of missiles and drones fired at the occupied territories over the past 15 months, and an economy collapsing despite billions in aid—all show that there is no security in the occupied territories.
Therefore, Netanyahu’s attempt to turn the Sydney incident into a tool for attracting Jews not only failed but also further exposed the deep paradox of the Zionist project. The Knesset report on a “tsunami” involving the departure of more than 125,000 Zionists from the occupied territories over three years, along with predictions that this trend will continue in 2025 and the years ahead, presents a shocking picture of a regime in crisis. Warnings by Nobel laureates about an “existential threat,” the admission by the Ministry of Immigration that it has no plan to stop this trend, and criticism by Hebrew outlets such as Walla that refute the claim of being the “safest place” with statistics all show that this narrative is no longer accepted even within the occupied territories.
Overall, what is really happening is a vicious cycle: the aggressive and expansionist policies of the Israeli regime increase antisemitism worldwide, but instead of immigrating to the occupied territories, Jews are leaving and prefer to remain in Western countries.