From London to Buenos Aires: Why They’re Joining an Army Accused of War Crimes
Hundreds of foreign nationals are travelling to join Israel’s occupation forces, arriving from cities such as London, New Jersey, Vienna, Buenos Aires and others — to take part in a military campaign that has, for ten months, been killing, starving, and displacing the people of Gaza while tightening its grip on the occupied West Bank. Many of these recruits actively seek positions in combat brigades long accused of war crimes against Palestinians.
Israel’s Ministry of Defence now expects between 600 and 700 foreigners to enlist in 2025 through its “Mahal” programme — a scheme created to bring in recruits from abroad — compared to an average of just over 300 a year before October 7th. In 2024, the number was 400. As later reported by the Hebrew daily Maariv, more than 86% of male volunteers request combat roles, with many women also asking for frontline assignments.
Some of the recruits openly voice racist views about people in their home countries, portraying their move to Israel not just as an act of loyalty to the occupation army, but as an escape from living alongside Arabs or Muslims. A 21-year-old from Austria, due to join the Golani Brigade, claimed: “You hear more Arabic than German in the streets of Vienna… Arabs have taken over… you can’t walk around with a kippah or Star of David anymore… all Jews should come and defend the state.”
From London, a 19-year-old heading directly into Golani basic training described being “moved deeply” at a wedding when the groom — a former Golani volunteer — waved the brigade’s flag, a unit notorious for its role in violent raids on Palestinian communities. He said this moment pushed him to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, who fought for Israel in 1967.
Others present themselves as driven by October 7th to “help Israel” regardless of whether they have faced antisemitism at home. A 22-year-old from New Jersey cited campus protests at her US university as her reason for joining, saying she could not “openly” wear a Star of David or express support for Israel. An 18-year-old from Argentina said that while she had not faced antisemitism in her country, she felt she “had to” take part in the war.
Before enlistment, the recruits undergo a month-long indoctrination process dressed up as a “preparatory course,” involving physical training, ideological bonding, and tours to sites chosen to deepen their commitment to the occupation — including Jerusalem, the Gaza border, Mount Herzl military cemetery, and the site of the Nova music festival attack. Several said they cried at the graves of Israeli soldiers killed on October 7th.
The Ministry of Defence designates them “lone soldiers,” providing subsidised housing, stipends, and logistical support — a level of state care denied to the millions of Palestinians whose homes and communities Israel has destroyed. Some of these foreigners extend their service beyond the standard term; others settle permanently in Israel, further embedding themselves in the machinery of occupation. Officials even boast that some returned from abroad during the war to rejoin combat as reservists.
This surge in foreign recruitment comes as Israel’s war on Gaza — condemned globally as collective punishment and ethnic cleansing — has killed tens of thousands, displaced the vast majority of the population, obliterated neighbourhoods, and driven the besieged enclave to the brink of famine. That people from comfortable lives abroad are flocking to take part in this devastation speaks volumes about the ideology and mindset being cultivated, and the impunity under which the occupation continues to operate.
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