About one million Israelis hold dual citizenship, roughly one in ten people in a country of around ten million. That figure is an estimate rather than an official count, and the reason so many Israelis have a second passport comes down to a single legal choice: the Nationality Law of 1952 does not require most new citizens to give up their prior nationality. Combined with more than 3.5 million immigrants since 1948, that policy has produced one of the highest dual-citizenship rates in the world.
Why the Number Is an Estimate
Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority records who is an Israeli citizen but does not systematically track whether those citizens also hold foreign passports. When someone immigrates under the Law of Return, the government registers them without asking for proof that they surrendered another nationality. That leaves a permanent gap in the data.
The gap runs both ways. Countries like the United States, France, and Russia don’t routinely tell Israel when an Israeli naturalizes there. Someone who moves to Berlin, lives there for years, and eventually becomes German has no duty to report it back home. So the numbers you see come from surveys, academic estimates, and partial military records rather than a central database.
Why So Many Israelis Hold a Second Passport
The Nationality Law of 1952 explicitly says that acquiring Israeli citizenship is not conditional on renouncing a prior nationality, with one exception: applicants going through standard naturalization.1Refworld. Israel: Nationality Law, 5712-1952 That single provision is the engine behind the country’s dual-citizenship rate.
Jewish immigrants arriving under the Law of Return, known as olim, automatically receive Israeli citizenship and keep whatever nationality they already had.1Refworld. Israel: Nationality Law, 5712-1952 A French Jew who makes aliyah stays French. A Brazilian Jew who immigrates stays Brazilian. Removing the requirement to burn bridges was a deliberate policy choice meant to encourage immigration, and it has done exactly that for more than seventy years.
Non-Jewish foreigners who naturalize through the ordinary process face the opposite rule. Section 5 of the Nationality Law requires them to renounce their prior nationality or show they will lose it upon becoming Israeli.2Global Citizenship Observatory. Nationality Law, 5712-1952 In practice, a non-Jewish spouse who naturalizes through marriage is expected to give up their original passport, while a Jewish immigrant arriving the same week keeps theirs.
Children add to the total quietly. A child born to Israeli parents abroad typically picks up both Israeli citizenship and the citizenship of the country of birth. A child born in Israel to foreign parents may inherit their parents’ nationality alongside Israeli citizenship. And a growing number of Israelis are reclaiming European citizenship through ancestral programs, particularly Germany’s reformed law for descendants of people persecuted by the Nazis, along with similar routes in Poland, Austria, Portugal, and Spain.
The Most Common Second Passports
American is the most common second passport. Estimates place the Israeli-American dual-national population at roughly 200,000, reflecting decades of migration in both directions and the fact that neither country demands renunciation of the other’s citizenship.
European passports come next. Over 100,000 French citizens have made aliyah since the early 1970s, and British and German passports are also widespread, driven both by earlier immigration waves and by the newer ancestral programs. Russian citizenship is common among the roughly one million Israelis who arrived from the former Soviet Union starting in the 1990s. Published IDF data has shown thousands of active soldiers alone hold Russian passports.
Smaller populations of Israelis hold citizenship from Ethiopia, Argentina, South Africa, and Australia, tracking the global spread of Jewish communities that have sent immigrants over the decades.
What Dual Citizens Cannot Do
Israel allows dual citizenship broadly, but not in every role. The clearest limit is in the Knesset. Under the Basic Law, a member of Knesset who holds another citizenship must renounce it.3The Knesset. Basic Law: The Knesset A dual citizen can run, but cannot be sworn in while still holding the foreign passport. Several lawmakers over the years have had to formally shed a second citizenship before taking their seat.
Senior government positions, judicial appointments, and certain civil service jobs carry similar expectations, though the specifics vary by role. The reasoning is straightforward: people wielding sovereign power over Israel are not supposed to owe formal allegiance to another state at the same time.
Dual Citizens Still Owe Military Service
Holding a second passport does not exempt anyone from the Israeli draft. The Defense Service Law applies to every Israeli citizen regardless of where they live or how many nationalities they hold.4Gov.il. Apply to Register Personal Details or Defer Your IDF Military Service Men aged 18 to 29 and women aged 18 to 26 are subject to conscription if fit, followed by years of reserve duty.
Dual citizens raised abroad are expected to settle their status through Israeli consulates, and failure to comply is a criminal offense under the law.4Gov.il. Apply to Register Personal Details or Defer Your IDF Military Service Enforcement against people who have never lived in Israel is rare in practice, but an unresolved conscription file can become an immediate problem the moment a dual citizen visits or moves. Deferments exist for students and medical cases, but each requires a formal application. Published IDF data has shown more than 50,000 serving soldiers with second passports, most often American, Russian, or French.
Tax Consequences Worth Knowing
Dual citizenship can create overlapping tax duties. Israel taxes its residents on worldwide income, so anyone living in Israel owes Israeli tax regardless of where the money is earned. The United States goes further and taxes its citizens on worldwide income even when they live permanently abroad.
The US-Israel tax treaty softens the overlap. A saving clause lets each country tax its own citizens as if the treaty did not exist, but the treaty then provides credits to prevent the same income from being fully taxed twice.5IRS. United States-Israel Income Tax Convention For American-Israeli dual citizens in Israel, the US allows a credit for Israeli tax paid, and Israel allows a credit for any additional US tax owed purely because of citizenship. You generally pay the higher of the two rates rather than both stacked together, but the filing burden remains. US citizens abroad still file annual returns with the IRS and may need to report foreign bank accounts under FBAR rules.
Dual citizens holding passports from countries other than the US usually have a simpler picture, since most countries tax on residency rather than citizenship. A French-Israeli living in Israel typically owes tax only to Israel.