Volunteer Quitting as a Political Statement and Act of Protest

As part of a national political struggle in 2023, high-level government actors in Israel sought to pass laws expanding executive power by undermining the power of courts. In protest against these legal reforms, many volunteer military reservists announced their intention to quit their service. Both the announcements and the resignations had a profound impact on the public discourse in Israel before the 2023 war with Hamas. This article focuses on a unique case of mass volunteer resignation. Little has been written on volunteers who quit, and almost no scholarship explores mass quitting as a political statement against the service agency or another entity. We discuss volunteer quitting and show how this case, while unique, is important to understanding the power of volunteers and how quitting can be an effective act of protest.