Putting aside the intensifying capital flight and drying foreign investments in Israeli high-tech, in May 2024, 130 top Israeli economists sent the Israeli PM a “clear and emphatic warning” of the “high probability” that Israel’s economy and society will fall into a “spiral of collapse.”
Prominent Israeli economist Dan Ben-David argues that “Israel has four years” before it “collapses” unless government policies undergo drastic changes.
Israel’s debt skyrocketed to approx. $340 billion in the 2nd half of 2024, up 20% from the end of 2022, due to its ongoing #GazaGenocide. With its credit rating close to “junk,” according to Moody’s, and an estimated ZERO growth rate in 2024, according to S&P, Israel is forced to pay exuberant interest rates to service its mushrooming debt.
Of the many signs of Israel becoming a #ShutDownNation, Intel had to shut down Granulate, an Israeli start-up that it had acquired for $650 million in 2022 after failing to find a buyer for months. In June 2024, Intel was forced to scrap a $25 billion project it had planned to build not far from Gaza.
In China, the world’s leading producer of electric cars, “there is growing concern over cars equipped with Israeli technology,” following Israel’s “pagers massacre” in Lebanon. “Safety systems developed in Israel could lead to car accidents due to the potential for remote takeover by Israeli operatives,” Chinese sources have said.
“Several of Europe's biggest financial firms have cut back their links to Israeli companies or those with ties to the country, a Reuters analysis of filings shows, as pressure mounts from activists and governments to end the war in Gaza.”
Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, has sold all of its shares in Bezeq, Israel’s largest telecoms company, due to its “services to the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Norway has adopted a “tougher” stance against businesses implicated in the occupation following the International Court of Justice’s decision in July 2024 that Israel’s entire occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is illegal.
Storebrand, among the Nordic region's most prominent investors, has sold its holdings in Palantir Technologies because of concerns that its “work for Israel might put the asset manager at risk of violating international humanitarian law and human rights.” Palantir is accused of knowingly enabling Israel’s genocide against 2.3M Palestinians in Gaza.
“The Japanese corporation Yokohama's decision to close the Alliance tire factory in Hadera, which employed close to 500 workers … raises questions regarding the future of the entire Israeli manufacturing industry.”
Global sales of McDonald’s, a prime BDS target, “fell by 1.5% between July and September, the biggest decline in four years, more than twice the size forecast by analysts. It followed a 1% drop in the April to June period.” “McDonald’s has faced boycotts and protests over its perceived pro-Israeli stance and alleged financial ties to the country.”
“7-Eleven has shut down all of its eight stores in Israel” is another indicator of the flight of capital and businesses away from the gradually “collapsing” economy.
Israeli experts predict that 2024 will be marked as “the year when tourism in Israel died.” “Everyone talking about the tourism situation in Israel sounds like they're delivering a eulogy over an open grave.” The Israeli media reports that five restaurants have recently shut down in Tel Aviv in just one week.
The 130 Israeli economists said: “Many of those who bear the burden will prefer to emigrate from Israel. The first to leave will be [the highly skilled] with opportunities abroad.” Scapegoating the Haredim, they added, “Israel’s remaining population will be less educated and less productive, thus increasing the burden on the remaining productive population. This, in turn, will encourage further emigration from Israel.”
They concluded: “Collapses do not occur when the situation has completely deteriorated, but earlier when a sufficiently large share of individuals anticipate that the decline is irreversible. Once Israel’s burden-bearing population concludes that the country is on a permanently irreparable course, the national collapse will inevitably follow.”
Adding to Israel’s gloom, the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants against Israeli leaders have degraded the state’s international standing. They “could also lead to calls for economic sanctions or boycotts against Israel, which would harm the economy. International investors may see increased risk in doing business with Israel, leading to reduced foreign investment and lower economic growth.”
A senior lawyer in one of Israel’s largest law firms commented on the ICC arrest warrants, saying: “The arrest warrants are definitely a negative addition.” In the past year, he added, “We have seen a growing concern of international companies to be identified with investments in Israel. Companies - mainly public or those that depend on public funds - are afraid of negative reactions, such as demonstrations against them and moves by employees or investors; therefore, certain transactions did not come to fruition at all.”
https://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1001494927
The ICC indictment of Netanyahu is also expected by Israeli experts to “affect security transactions of arms sales to Israel.”
An ongoing, almost 14-month-old US-Israeli genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza is destroying hundreds of thousands of Palestinian lives and livelihoods. It seems to be also accelerating the descent of Israel’s 76-year-old regime of settler-colonialism and apartheid into a “spiral of collapse.”