Israel:
Opposition in the Military Spreads

Apr 28, 2025

This article is translated from the April 18 issue #2959 of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the paper of the revolutionary workers group of that name active in France.

The Israeli army faces a rising number of refusals by reservists to report to duty, as well as a series of protests by groups of soldiers and veterans.

After completing their mandatory military tour of duty, Israelis remain in the military reserves until they turn 40. They can be called up at any time. After the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, reservists who were not called up volunteered. As many as 300,000 reservists reported for duty. But since then, the rate of reservists reporting for service has steadily fallen. The army claims the rate is between 75 and 85%, but journalists estimate it lower, at only 60 to 70%.

Recruitment campaigns are carried out on WhatsApp groups. Finance and defense ministers announced a fund of around 800 million dollars (three billion Israeli shekels) to offer “benefits” to reservists, such as an additional tax break and an online credit account based on how long they served.

But these weren’t enough to convince all reservists to leave their families and jobs behind and go to war. Most troops who do not report for duty simply and quietly just don’t show up. But recently a coordinated movement developed. For example, 1,000 pilots and aviators mostly on reserve but some on active duty signed a letter accusing Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of endangering the lives of the remaining hostages held by Hamas. They denounced Netanyahu’s relentlessness, attributing it to his “political and personal interests.”

Continuing the war lets him stay in office as head of state even though he is named in several corruption cases. But the letter doesn’t directly oppose the war or the legitimacy of the Israeli army itself. Everyone who signed the letter was discharged from the military. But then a group of 150 former naval officers also signed, followed on April 14 by more than 1,500 armored corps reservists and veterans openly demanding a unilateral ceasefire and the return of the hostages through diplomatic channels.

These protesters are not as clear as the activists who refuse to serve and who also directly denounce the overall oppression of Palestinians. Those refuseniks, as they are called, are subject to prosecution and prison time. In March, 18-year-old activist Ella Keidar from the Tel Aviv Communist Youth was sentenced to 30 days in prison for refusing to do her military service. “We will not participate in the genocide in Gaza or the oppression of the Palestinian people,” she declared at a rally organized in her support. Conscientious objector 18-year-old Itamar Greenberg denounced “a system of violence, domination, and oppression” and got 197 days in detention.

A group supporting the refuseniks, Enough is Enough (Yesh Gvul in Hebrew), says the current refusal movement is the largest since Israel went to war in Lebanon in 1982. Although the troops denouncing Israel’s colonial policies against the Palestinians remain a small minority, their outspokenness shows that war fatigue affects more and more troops. These troops see the dead end this endless war represents, not only for the Palestinian victims of bombing, but also for the Israeli people.