The default choice in Jewish-Israeli life in the Middle East is to serve in the Israeli army. Almost every teenage boy in Israel is part of an education system that emphasizes the significance of the military service and its contribution to the national culture and to the state security. Despite all this, my decision not to enlist in the army feels completely natural to me. I have no doubts about it. The Israeli army is, in effect, a zionist army. Its purpose is to ensure a Jewish majority in this country, and to ensure that this majority will control all its institutions - the police, the justice system, the welfare system, the education system, the government and more. Even if Druze, Arab, and other non-Jewish citizens of Israel are allowed or at times even required to serve in the army, the army remains, at all times, a zionist army for Jews.
Israel prides itself on being a 'Jewish and democratic' state. But this definition fundamentally excludes all non-Jews and turns them into second-class citizens, guests in a country that is not their own. To ensure the continuing validity of this definition, it is necessary to guard the existence of a permanent Jewish majority in Israel, and to ensure that this majority continues its racially dominant rule through election results, for otherwise the state be Jewish, but it would not be ‘democratic.’ As a result, non-Jewish populations are relegated from the onset to the position of secondary citizens, and their ability to bring about political changes that would impact their status is blocked. According to this logic, since this country belongs first and foremost to those of Jewish origin, a Jewish majority must be guaranteed at all times, or the country would cease being Jewish.
The Israeli army plays a crucial role in preserving the Jewish majority by any means it perceives as legitimate. Today, when the Israeli government is working toward the future annexation of the West Bank into the Israeli state, the army must ensure that there is no significant non-Jewish population that can challenge democratically the character of Israel as a Jewish state. The Israeli army, which claims to be the "Israeli defense forces", works continuously to thin out the Palestinian population whose only crime is to have been born to the wrong family, in the wrong city. The army does this by declaring as “military training areas” agricultural land, grazing lands and residential areas, forcing the Indigenous population from those areas so that ‘the army can train,’ although it is clear to all that there is no genuine military need for those areas. When Jewish citizens seek to enter the West Bank for "religious” or political purposes, the army is there to "protect" them - that is, to impose lockdowns on the Indigenous population, and parade military convoys in front of their homes to deter them. The army "confiscates" the water of the residents in the Negev area, it evicts citizens from their homes, it prevents residents from walking freely in their cities, and does everything within its power to disrupt the routine of life in the West Bank. The final goal of it all is to bring about ethnic cleansing and to establish a Jewish majority in these areas, and this all takes place in broad daylight. Ultimately, Israel’s goal is to rule as much territory as possible, with the minimum possible number of Palestinians residing in them.
Despite the substantial number of such acts, and despite the brutality with which they are carried out, within Israel itself there is little awareness of them. Those who know of such acts and support them as means for establishing a "Jewish state in the historical land of the Jewish people" advocate a nationalist and extreme worldview, in which a religious belief in an ancient kingdom from 2000 years ago is more important than human beings who are attempting to live their lives. This perspective divides the world into races, of which only one is a chosen and deserving race, and that ‘chosen race’ is entitled to carve out a living space for itself and its people, and to ensure its complete rule over its "promised land". Needless to say, I strongly oppose this point of view, and see it as fundamentally racist and as a burden on humanity.
It is also important to note the army, which views itself as a merely defensive army, "Israeli Defense Forces", does not act in defense of the State of Israel. For decades now, the State of Israel has addressed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict solely through military force. Beginning with the 1948 war, where Israel turned nearly a million Palestinians into refugees; through the 1956 Sinai war in which Israel invaded Egypt to eliminate parts of those refugees who became the Fedayeen; The '67 war; the '73 war; the first Lebanon war in 1982; two intifadas; a second war in Lebanon; and countless "operations" in Gaza (“Defensive Shield” in 2002; “Cast Lead in 2008-2009; "Protective edge" in 2014; and finally the Gaza operation in August 2022). This will never end, because whoever conquers a people will always encounter resistance, and so there will always be another Intifada, another “terrorist organization,” and more military operations. Israel will continue to try to wipe the Palestinians off the map because it has no choice if it wants to remain "Jewish and democratic". Otherwise, with the annexation of the West Bank a significant Jewish majority in the country will not be certain. And this will all stop only after everyone loses.
In Israel, Jewish people like to say that "there is no partner for peace", to justify the merciless brutalities for which the army and the government are responsible. Despite that, the latest polls show that there is twice as much support among Palestinians for a peace process, for the existence of a bi-national state, for coexistence, and for a life of brotherhood rather than war, than there is among the Jews in Israel. The Israel government is the one that insists on fighting, and it is the one that will always insist on fighting as long as it pursues the nightmare dream of the Jewish kingdom that was promised in heaven.
Enlisting in the army means endorsing these goals. It means endorsing the ethnic cleansing of non-Jews, or at the very least the endorsement of an endless “holy” war. To those who prefer to view the army as “Defense Forces,” and who wish to highlight the ways in which it protects Jews by preventing terrorist attacks, I can only recommend that they observe that for every attack the army prevents, it enables twice as many attacks on Palestinians by settlers in the West Bank. For every missile that hits Israel, three hit Gaza. For every Israeli-Jew killed, five Arabs are killed. I wish to see the end of this terrible cycle of bloodshed. Despite all this I am optimistic, and I believe that the end of the bloodshed, as distant as it may seem, is inevitable .
To summarize, the systematic oppression of Palestinians in Israel ultimately stems from one central source - Israel's demand to be a 'Jewish and democratic' state. This demand comes at the expense of everything: life, liberty, peace, and equality. This is extreme nationalism that yields nothing but hatred. However, a general trend can be seen worldwide against such extreme nationalism. Slowly humanity as a whole is turning its back on nationalistic evil, even if sometimes it seems that for every two steps forward there is one step back. Notions that a hundred years ago would have been considered completely absurd – universal democratic rights, recognition of the rights of the LGBT community, of racial minorities and of women - today seems almost obvious. The wise see that this war can never end; there will always be more justice to fight for. Whoever fights for such justice, for the ultimate truth that all people are brothers, will always seem ridiculous at first, for they seem to demand the impossible. But, as can be seen time and time again in history, our worldview is always vindicated. I truly believe that everyone who trembles with rage when faced with injustice will sooner or later conclude that refusing to serve in the Israeli army is the only right choice.
