A particularly dramatic internal confrontation is currently taking place in Sayeret Matkal, the most classified and secretive unit in Israel, which is torn apart by the announcement by soldiers and soldiers in the unit of their intention to refuse reserve service.
This week, two letters were published, for and against refusal, signed by hundreds of soldiers, and an internal discussion is taking place simultaneously to try to reach a solution.
In an extensive article in Israel Hayom about the phenomenon of refusal, two of the soldiers reveal what is happening in Sayeret Matkal these days. "I didn't believe that reality would reach a point where I would have to hurt almost everything dearest to me," says A., a member of the unit who lives in Samaria, who performs dozens of reserve duty days a year and is now announcing that he is ceasing his volunteering.
Sayeret Matkal fighters during the exercise, photo: Ziv Koren
"Crossing a red line". Sayeret Matkal fighter who stands against the opinion of his fellow soldiers, photo: Yehoshua Yosef
"Stop this business"
"I make a very dear sacrifice to my heart to cry out this cry. I fought last year to extend my reserves, because they wanted the veterans to give way to the young. I begged to carry out one more operational activity, and now I'm leaving," he adds. However, he says that in the event of war he may be in service.
"I have to say with a hand on my heart that in a war situation, I don't know what I will do. But as far as regular and daily reserve service is concerned, I suspend my volunteering. I don't understand the argument of those who tell me I'm crossing the border. I didn't make a decision because Yair Lapid told me to make it, but it was a personal decision I made based on the understanding that the country was going into the abyss. Go to the prime minister and ask why he's not stopping this business. Why are citizens instead expected to sit on the sidelines while the country collapses around them?"
IDF Chief of Staff Halevy meets with reservists: "Refusal is a red line" // Photo: IDF Spokesperson
M., on the other hand, clarifies that this is crossing a red line. He is the first soldier in the unit from the Ethiopian community, and says that just as he would not agree to a refusal in the event of a protest by Ethiopian immigrants, here too it is a bright red line that must not be crossed.
"I never believed in my life that there would ever be talk of refusal in the unit," he says. "I know these people, and I have no doubt that some of them are afraid, but not insubordination, it's not something they talk about. There is no such situation where you don't get to the reserves. We do not have the right to refuse. In the end, I look at the role we play vis-à-vis our families, vis-à-vis the citizens of the State of Israel, and I can't understand how people's security can be used. In the end, security is above everything."
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