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Abstract What happens when members of an ethnonational state no longer feel ‘at home’ in the country that was established for their protection? This article examines the case of a growing number of Jewish Israelis leaving Israel. The modern state of Israel was purportedly founded to ensure the survival and flourishing of Jews whose lives had become precarious living in diaspora. It has been conceived as a country of refuge (eretz miklat) for Jews from around the world. The establishment of the modern state of Israel, according to Zionist ideology, signalled the end of Jewish exile and the beginning of modern Jewish self-determination. Although there has always been emigration from Israel, Israeli nationalist historiography has primarily been concerned with Jewish migration to Israel. However, following the elections of 2022, the Hamas attacks of 2023, and the ensuing wars, census data from 2024–2025 showed that more Israelis were leaving than coming to the country. Amidst this situation, Jewish Israelis have been expressing a sense of abandonment by their government, if not their country. A growing number have been making plans to or have already left the country that, so to speak, has already left them. In other words, a form of self-exile is underway. This article examines how ‘the nation’ borders and re-borders itself, suggesting this case of self-exile can be understood by employing an expanded understanding of Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s concept of ‘organized abandonment’.