Conscription Is Not the Problem. Inequality Is the Problem

By: Dr. Warda Sada

In Israel, people like to talk about a “crisis of motivation for conscription,” but they avoid acknowledging the simple truth: this is not a crisis of young people—it is a crisis of the state. Young women and men are not refraining from enlistment because they are indifferent or spoiled, but because they live in a society that asks them to sacrifice everything while struggling to guarantee basic equality, responsibility, and transparency.

Over the years, compulsory service has shifted from a tool of civic solidarity into a mechanism of deep inequality. Some are required to pay with their bodies and their minds, while others receive almost automatic exemptions. For some, service opens doors; for others, even after full service, they remain excluded, weakened, or invisible.

This gap is not accidental. It is the result of policy.

Young people see reality clearly: leadership that speaks in the name of security but acts according to narrow political considerations; wars without a political horizon; the continued violent occupation of the Palestinian people; moral injuries; responsibility pushed downward while benefits remain at the top. They see a society that sanctifies military service yet struggles to recognize post-trauma, the poverty of discharged soldiers, and the human cost of endless “conflict management.”

For many young people—Jews and Arabs, women and men, from the center and the periphery—the question is not whether to contribute, but to what and for whom. Are they being asked to defend an equal and democratic society, or to serve as a protective wall for a regime that deepens exclusion, violence, and inequality?

Public discourse tries to frame the issue as a personal moral question: “to enlist or not to enlist.” But this is a distinctly political question. As long as service is unequal, and as long as it is inseparable from policies of occupation, discrimination, and military control over a civilian population, trust cannot be expected.

In this reality, clinging to blanket compulsory service is not a solution but an evasion of an honest discussion. It is time to ask, with courage: does the current conscription model serve the security of society—or does it primarily preserve an existing political order?

A viable alternative exists, and it is not an “abandonment of responsibility,” but its expansion. A transition to broad, voluntary civic–national service under an equal civilian framework: military, educational, medical, environmental, and community service. A form of service that recognizes that contribution to society is measured not only by weapons, but also by building life, healing, education, and peace.

Many democratic countries have already understood this. They have moved from compulsory service to choice-based service, recognizing that genuine service rests on consent, trust, and a sense of justice—not on coercion and sanctions.

Those who fear that voluntary service would weaken Israeli society ignore the fact that it is already weakening from within. Inequality, exclusion, and cynicism are the real threats to social resilience—not young people who ask difficult questions.

And what do I mean by cynicism here?Cynicism, in this context, is the gap between words and deeds.

A state that speaks about the “value of service” and “sharing the burden,” but in practice maintains selective exemptions, rewards insiders, and ignores those harmed by service (post-trauma, poverty, dropout). Young people recognize this gap—and lose trust. Young people are used rhetorically as political currency: soldiers and “sacrifice” are invoked in ceremonies and speeches, but when it truly matters, there is no personal accountability by decision-makers, no political horizon, and no assumption of responsibility for mistakes. This creates the feeling that “they talk about us—but not with us.”

The delegitimization of moral criticism: a young person who asks questions is immediately labeled “weak,” “a draft dodger,” or “a traitor.” The implicit message is: it doesn’t matter what you feel or think—just be quiet and serve. This is cynicism toward democracy itself.

An implied promise that is not kept. The old narrative said: serve—and you will belong, advance, and be protected. Reality tells a different story for many: the periphery remains the periphery, Arabs remain excluded, women are harmed and not protected, and discharged combatants are left alone. When the promise collapses, cynicism is born.

If the state wants its young people to serve, it must first be worthy of their service: equality of rights, equality of obligations, governmental responsibility, and a political horizon.

Without these—no motivation campaign will work.