As my birthday approaches, I grow more and more anxious because a professional organization of trained terrorists that calls itself an army wants me to be one of them. And if I say no, a prison sentence will be the result.

(Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty Images)
As a soon-to-be 18-year-old Israeli high school student, enlistment is the only thing waiting for me after I finish my studies in six months. We have speeches every other week, telling us how important it is to serve and complete a “meaningful service” for the country. Of course, meaningful service means serving in fighting roles, roles that include violence.
Recently I got sent a message from the IDF telling me that I’m “invited” to a sorting intended for future paratroopers. I, of course, don’t want to be a paratrooper. I don’t want anything to do with the IDF, for obvious reasons.
I don’t want to take any part in enforcing apartheid, colonialism, and violent oppression. For the IDF though, this is not enough. As I learned recently, the army does not exempt anyone purely because of ideological reasons. In other words, I can hate the army, I can hate the country, its government, and the things it stands for, but I cannot refuse to become a soldier.
Because the punishment for that is a prison sentence.