Encounters between fields: Integrating military forces into the health field's epidemiological effort during COVID-19 in Israel

In July 2020, the government of Israel mandated cooperation between the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to address the COVID-19 crisis. Our research aims to reveal the consequences of this cooperation. We examine how the two organizations dealt with COVID-19 investigations and morbidity challenges. The article's theoretical framework is based on Pierre Bourdieu's theory of fields, showing the conflictual relations between the military and the civilian fields during COVID-19 efforts, as reflected in the relations between the IDF and the MOH. Twenty semi-constructed interviews were conducted with MOH and IDF personnel from February to May 2021. Results show cooperation alongside conflicts and demonstrate the military's extensive intrusion into a field outside its natural domain. The MOH acknowledged the potential benefit of the IDF's mobilization yet sensed that the IDF came to “save the day” while placing them in an inferior position. According to the IDF's interviewees, the MOH's “professional approach” often clashed with their action-based approach. In Bourdieu's terms, while the healthcare system can use human capital in its actions, the IDF system enjoys greater symbolic, social, cultural, and economic capital. This advantage in capital placed the two fields, MOH and IDF, in an unbalanced power relationship, explaining the IDF's taking over. We assumed that the securitization process of health services with alignment of expectations, division of authority, and open communication has the potential to help organizations better manage clashes in national and global crises.