I am in the main station in Tel Aviv waiting for the next train to Haifa. As I entered the station I had to have my handbag and my body scanned. Very unfriendly ticket cashier. I did suggest her to try and smile more often. All around I see male & female soldiers, or shall I say girl and boy soldiers, they must be in their late teens. They are all wearing green military uniforms fashionably accessorized with big, black machine guns and huge, rustic backpacks. They all seem to be going home, they have a certain leisurely & relaxed attitude to life and their big guns. Their faces are pretty and happy. Girls are wearing branded sunglasses, make up, they have their hand & toe nails done, they all talk on iPhones, latest Nokias or Samsung mobile phones.
There’s something wrong with this image. Gunned girls & boys in public spaces. Not scary at all, to me it just speaks of an anomaly in a society. I grew up in a military environment with both parents being military officers. I used to go to shooting training sessions with them all through my childhood and teen years. Not even once do I remember my parents bringing their guns or pistols home, it was actually forbidden to take any weaponry outside of the barracks.
Why are Israeli teen soldiers allowed to carry their weapons in public spaces? I do wonder what a person who has only seen weapons on television thinks and feels at the sight of a train station filled with gunned teen soldiers. What does this say about Israeli society? Are they constantly at war or in the expectance of war?
I asked a pregnant lady sitting next to me on the bench why these soldiers are carrying their weapons with them. With a smile on her face she explained that they were each assigned a gun and had to carry it with them at all times. Girls carry weapons as well as boys. When they turn 18 everybody goes to the military, it is a compulsory service, 2 years for females, 3 years for males.
What does the existence of compulsory military service say about a country’s socio-political system?
* I wrote this entry in my diary on July 15th, in the Savidor train station while waiting for the 10.20 am train to Haifa.
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