Abstract
Conscription is one of the cornerstones of Israel. Since its independence, young Jewish boys and girls along with volunteers from other minority communities have joined the Israel Defense Force (IDF) for their mandatory military service. This has resulted in a unique yet strong relation between the society and military, resulting in the creation of a people’s army. As a nascent state with limited resources, arrival of new immigrants, and threats of wars, since 1948 Israel was left with no option but to mobilize its human resources through conscription. The conscription plays an important role in constructing the notion of national consciousness through the common experience of serving the “homeland.” However, in recent years, the number of draft deferrals and draft dodgers has increased, leading to public discussions questioning the reality of IDF as the “People’s army.”
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Chakravortty, D. (2023). Conscription in Israel. In: Kumaraswamy, P.R. (eds) The Palgrave International Handbook of Israel. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2717-0_31-1
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