For Israeli military paramedic Yuval Green, it was the command to burn down a house that made him decide to end his reserve duty.
Green had spent 50 days in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis earlier this year with his paratrooper unit, sleeping in a home lit only by battery-powered fairy lights among the rubble and devastation.
He had begun to have doubts about the unit’s purpose there months earlier when he heard about Israel’s refusal to agree to Hamas’s demands to end the war, along with freeing hostages.
Green is one of three Israeli reservists who told the Observer they will not return if called for military service in Gaza. All three previously undertook compulsory military service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which forms the backbone of society.
The insidious thing is that refusing to serve does not grow dissent within the ranks. It takes those who are dissenting out of the ranks, which causes the army as a whole to be more extreme. And, given long standing compulsory service laws, such dissenters can be jailed, allowing the government to disrupt any potential domestic anti war movement.