Military service has been compulsory for all Israeli citizens aged 18 years or over (who are either Jewish, Druze or Circassian) throughout the country's brief history.
(The Druze are a religious community found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan. They number approximately 1.25 million altogether; about 130,000 of them live in Israel. The Circassians are native to the north–west Caucasus; many of them were displaced in the course of the Russian conquest of the Caucasus in the 19th century, especially after the Russian–Circassian War of 1864. They are Sunni Muslims, and about 4,000 of them live in Israel.)
The normal length of compulsory service in Israel is currently three years for men and two years for women.
© Haydn Thompson 2017