Thousands of foreign nationals are serving in Israel’s military with the legal tolerance of their home states, while peaceful protest against the war is criminalised. This double standard exposes a deep failure of international law and accountability.

The Israeli occupation recently announced shocking figures that not only reflect the scale of the military strain it is experiencing on the ground, but also reveal the changing structural nature of this conflict.

Official data disclosed the presence of nearly 50,000 soldiers of foreign nationalities actively serving in its army. The United States topped the list with 12,135 soldiers, followed by France with 6,127, then the United Kingdom, Germany, Ukraine, Italy, and the Netherlands, in addition to other European and Asian countries.

The matter does not end there. Israeli media reports confirmed that the government is seeking to recruit 30,000 additional soldiers from new immigrants and grant them immediate citizenship in order to integrate them into the military and economic apparatus. This move aims to address a shortfall estimated at around 20,000 combatants, according to official army sources. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich affirmed this direction while discussing the government’s plan for the next phase, describing the importation of “human resources” from abroad as a fundamental pillar to ensure the continuation of the Zionist project in the face of what he termed existential challenges.

The central question raised by this transcontinental mobilisation is: how are these individuals persuaded to leave their lives in the world’s affluent capitals to fight in the alleys of Gaza and the West Bank? The answer lies in a complex mobilisation machine in which Israel collaborates with countries of origin through multiple channels.

First, there are programs of ideological recruitment sponsored by global Zionist organisations in coordination with the Israeli Ministry of Defence. Among them is the Mahal program, which allows non Israelis to volunteer in the army, and the Gadna program, which targets adolescents aged 15 to 17 in order to prepare them psychologically and militarily. For these young recruits, fighting in Israel is portrayed not as a war crime or an occupation, but as a........

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