Netanyahu: Soldiers refusing service threatening our existence

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks out against the phenomenon of reserves soldiers threatening to refuse service or training, saying members of Israel’s defense forces have never before abandoned the state.

“There’s no room for refusals,” he says in a press conference from a Border Police base in the West Bank settlement of Beit Horon, standing alongside National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana. “When you are on the battlefield and look right or left, you don’t do that to check the political viewpoints of your neighbors.”

“This is the first and most important foundation of our existence in our land,” he says, noting all the times soldiers did not refuse service. “The refusals threaten the foundation of our existence.”

“In society there is room for protest, room for opposing viewpoints, but no room for refusals,” he adds.