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Sept. 7, 2007
Is the IDF still the people's army?
Debate grows over the number of Israelis who refuse to show up
for military service.
RHONDA SPIVAK
Ehud Barak, Israel's new minister of defence and chairman of the
Labor party, unleashed a significant debate this summer about draft-dodgers
that continues to captivate the Israeli public. In what was one
of his first public statements since taking office, Barak said at
a conference at Tel-Aviv University that the Israel Defence Forces,
once "the people's army" is "gradually turning into
the army of half the people."
As Barak stated, "A soldier cannot run forward with all his
strength if he feels that the rear is full of holes ... the time
has come to return to the days when serving was a privilege and
an honor, and draft-dodging meant being branded with the mark of
Cain."
Statistics recently published by the IDF reported that a quarter
of all eligible youth never serve. Of these, some 11 per cent received
exemptions on the grounds of being ultra-Orthodox, an increase of
one per cent over last year. Seven per cent did not enlist for medical
reasons, both physical and mental. Over the last number of years,
the number of people who evade the draft by lying about the state
of their psychological health has been increasing. Forty-three per
cent of female high school graduates evaded the draft this year.
Of these, 33 per cent received exemptions after declaring they were
religious. Many believe this figure is so large because it has become
relatively fashionable for those women who wish to evade the draft
to falsely state that they are religious.
Barak also referred to the secular "cultural icons," popular
singers who are not ashamed to admit they have evaded army service.
He blasted university lecturers and employers who do not accommodate
students or workers who are called up for reserve duty. "A
society under an existential threat will only know how to survive
it if it respects those who defend it," Barak said.
Since Barak's remarks, there has been a "national shame"
campaign launched by municipalities and organizers of public events
to stigmatize draft-dodging. For example, Ruhama Avraham-Balili,
chair of Israel's 60th anniversary planning committee, announced
that she will not hire artists who have not served in the IDF. The
forum of development towns in Israel also announced that its municipalities
would not hire people who had evaded service.
Eighteen-year-old Nati Absalm from Netanya, a non-religious soldier
of Morrocan origin who is currently serving as a medic, is glad
that Barak has made draft-dodging an issue. "It's become very
popular not to serve," he said. "The problem isn't only
that some people don't serve at all, but that other people who do
serve are less motivated to take on combat positions because the
army is less respected and honored. It's egotism.... People here
are thinking more and more about themselves and less about contributing
to society. Our values as a society have changed."
The issue of draft-dodging has affected Absalm personally. "My
older brother dodged the draft," he confessed. "He didn't
want to go into the army. He wanted to get a head start on working
and making money, so that he can live in Montreal. Out of my five
closest friends, two others dodged the draft for similar reasons.
One is secular and one is religious," he added.
Absalm decided to go into the army for six years, instead of the
usual three. "It's kind of my way of compensating the state
for the fact that my brother didn't serve at all," he said.
Daniel Asher, a soldier from Moshav Basra serving with the marines,
resents people who evade service in the army. "The problem
is that each generation of Israeli children has gotten more spoiled,
and the more spoiled we've gotten, the less we know how to give
back to our country," he said. "People who don't serve
get to advance in the workplace while I'm in the army. They advance
in society as much as I do. There ought to be more benefits given
to people who serve. The Second Lebanon War only made things worse,
as the army was seen as having made too many mistakes and it wasn't
something that we were proud of."
Asher added, "I have a friend who is serving in the shtachim
(territories). It's not pleasant.... He has to deal with Hamas fighters
trying to get to the other side of the security fence. Why should
he have to serve in the shtachim, when others don't even serve at
all?"
For Asher, the best thing about the army is "that you make
friends for life – people that will always look out for you
and help you."
Moran Atev, a 19-year-old soldier from Hadera, knows some draft-dodgers.
"There are some soldiers in my unit who went into the army
and then just didn't come back to the base when they were supposed
to," she said. "They fled. They weren't happy with the
tasks they were given. They are now sitting in an army jail. I don't
know how long they will be there."
When asked what she thinks of these people, she candidly said, "I'm
not the best person to criticize them. I didn't want to go into
the army system. It's not something I was really happy about doing.
It's been OK so far because I'm making some good friends."
On the other hand, Atev's friend Ruthie, an Israeli of Ethiopian
origin from Netanya who did not want to give her last name, said
that she wanted to go to the army and that all of her social circle
did, as well. "I don't know anyone who didn't want to serve,"
she said.
Amit, a religious soldier from Ashdod who serves as an electrician
in the air force, laughed when asked about his thoughts on the Charedim
(ultra-Orthodox) and the army. "Of course they should serve,
because they are no different than the rest of us," he said.
"It would be better if the Charedim would serve in the army,
but if they don't, then they should have to do sherut leumi
(national service), some form of service where they work in schools,
hospitals, community centres to give back to the country,"
suggested Sagi, a soldier in intelligence who was on his way back
to his base on Mount Hermon in the Golan.
After raising the issue of draft-dodging, Barak himself has come
under a lot of criticism in the Israeli media for having assisted
the ultra-Orthodox in evading the draft by passing the Tal law under
his term as prime minister. The law allows 18-year-old yeshivah
students to postpone their military service every year until the
age of 22, when they are allowed to work or study for a year before
deciding to return to yeshivah or join the army. As such, the law
essentially gives an exemption to the entire Charedi population,
a segment of Israeli society that has been consistently growing,
and appears destined to do so in the future. The Knesset extended
the Tal law for another five years shortly before Barak made his
public remarks against draft-dodging.
The renewed debate over draft-dodging this summer has sparked a
legislative initiative by former soldier and Knesset member Amira
Dotan of Kadima that would mandate national service for Charedim,
Israeli Arabs and others who do not serve in the army. According
to the proposed law, those who opt not to serve their country would
lose the right to vote and to receive welfare from the state.
Against this background, near the end of August, the Israeli government
announced the formation of a new authority whose mandate will be
to place candidates exempted from the army into national service
projects. The government has allocated funds for this new body and
appointed Reuven Gal, a known supporter of this cause, to co-ordinate
the authority's first steps. If he is successful, it could increase
equality and bring together elements of Israeli society that otherwise
would never meet.
Many in the IDF believe that that political refusal to carry out
orders by right-wing religious soldiers is just as dangerous as
draft-dodging. In August, this issue received attention when dozens
of religious IDF soldiers in the Duchifat battalion in the West
Bank informed their commanders, after consulting with their rabbis,
that they would refuse to participate in the evacuation of Jewish
families who took over buildings in the Hebron marketplace. These
soldiers were not set to evacuate the settlers with their own hands,
but were going to be replacing border police officers who were removed
from their posts for the evacuation.
Absalm took part in the evacuation of the Hebron settlers, in his
capacity as an army medic who cared for injured border police. He
filmed the event with the camera on his cellphone. "It wasn't
as if the families there made it easy for us," he said. "They
fortified themselves in their homes and had another 400 activists
with them. They poured oil on the hands of the border police to
make it hard for them to grab hold of people. They're smart,"
he said.
When asked, he said it was not something he looks forward to doing
again. "It was hard to remove Jews from their homes,"
he conceded. "It's not something that I really wanted to do,
but I knew that I had to do it and never considered refusing."
Rhonda Spivak is a Winnipeg freelance writer who spends
several months of the year in Israel.
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