After high school years shaped by war, Israeli teens face military draft

TEL AVIV — Yonatan Baba started his junior year of high school taking classes on Zoom as a security precaution after Hamas’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Over the course of the war that followed, he said, friends of his have been killed or injured while fighting in Gaza. Last month, on the eve of what was supposed to be his graduation ceremony, Baba huddled in a bomb shelter, comforting a neighbor having a panic attack amid a barrage of Iranian missiles.

Across Israel, where military service is compulsory for most Jewish citizens above 18, a cohort of high school students who graduated last month will be among the next wave of conscripts entering the Israel Defense Forces. Many, like Baba, have had their final years of school overshadowed by conflict and funerals, their rites of passage such as final exams and proms postponed or canceled, their views on Israel’s place in the world shaped by fire.

After high school years shaped by war, Israeli teens face military draft

Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply