Should I stay or should I go? Expected trends in Israeli higher education internationalization and academic migration following the 2023 war

On October 7th, following Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel, the 2023 Israel-Gaza War broke out. Israeli academia was affected directly in many ways by the war (two colleges in active war zones with government guidelines calling for evacuation; casualties and hostages from the academic community and families of the community; emergency call of reserves, with a high percentage of students and faculty and staff to be called up; and the opening of the academic year was delayed). Beyond the direct impact of the war on Israeli academia, practices of internationalization in higher education were affected too, almost immediately: following the war, most routes (air travel) to and from Israel were limited; state authorities and insurance companies advised against foreigners visiting the region and, in many cases, against Israelis traveling abroad for unnecessary travel. In addition, statements of academic leadership, academic institutions, and academic associations throughout the world on the events in Israel, combined with activism around the world, impacted the institutional climate and feeling of welcome for Israelis abroad. In this paper, we seek to understand how the 2023 war will impact internationalization trends and practices in Israeli academia, including mobility and migration. Specifically, it asks how the international experiences of Israeli academics since the war began impact their motivation to participate in practices of internationalization and academic mobility and migration and what the possible implications of these experiences are on future internationalization trends. We analyze the experiences of Israeli academics at all levels: students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty engaged in higher education internationalization collaborations or exchanges during the war. Data includes social media posts, emails sent on Israeli academic listservs, personal testimonies written and published on various platforms, and interviews. In our analysis, we focus on academic and national identities and the role of different agents (such as donors, university leadership, and the academic community). Our findings suggest a few paths of current and future trends in internationalization and academic migration in Israeli academia.