IDF Targeting Girls in Non-religious Schools

BS"D

Israeli Army Draft Office Flagging  Girls in Less Religious Schools for Religious Interrogation - Wholesale - With Apparent Cooperation of Some Rabbanut Rabbis

-- Traditional & National Religious Girls Bearing Brunt of Recent Escalation; Human-Trafficking Concerns Rise

23 Tammuz, 5780 °°  July 15, '20

Parshas Matos - Masei


By Binyomin Feinberg


feinbergbinyomin@gmail.com



"... And if someone, like Pinchos, is one among a multitude, and every man is against him when he dares to speak out for truth and to fight for the Law -- the more lonely his stand, the greater the number of his adversaries, the more powerful is his word, the mightier his deed."

--  Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch OB"M (1808-1888), (in "Judaism Eternal," vol. 2, p. 293)


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Update link for the month of Tammuz to check in case we post during the week between our regular Wednesday/ Thursday posts:


https://docs.google.com/document/d/19P6537IM3H-v_UlYsRzeiukw9uBWq3M0GjaoYJhIQUk/edit?usp=sharing


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As reported previously, in a major  development over the past several weeks, the Draft Office of the Israeli Army (operating under the entity "Meitav") is flagging teenage girls who study, or  studied in less-religious or non-religious schools - summoning them to a "Rayon Dat" (a military "Religiosity Interview," or, more often, interrogation). These girls are now receiving this order even without stepping into the Draft Office. Until now, it was generally only after entering the Draft Office that such girls would be identified, and only then confronted with a summons to the Draft Office. Now, girls are facing this formidable challenge earlier in the process, as young as about 16-1/2 years old, soon after they obtain their religiosity verification from the Rabbanut (Israeli Rabbinate). Apparently, there's a new Army protocol in place to flag all such girls on a wholesale basis.

Moreover, the Rabbanut itself - primarily in Jerusalem - has lately reported to have been asking multiple girls where they study, in a seemingly innocent, but potentially catastrophic departure from Rabbanut protocol. Coincidentally, girls asked that question are finding themselves suddenly summoned to the Draft Offices. Is the Rabbanut sharing that information with the Draft Office? Are we to assume it's merely coincidental that these same girls are shortly thereafter being ordered to appear before a military panel for religiosity interrogations?

Even if the Rabbanut is in fact not providing that information to Army headhunters, it's apparent - to volunteer women assisting these teenage girls - that the recent  Rabbanut shift in policy (questioning girls about their schooling while they are simply seeking religiosity documentation) is indicative of some form of Army-Rabbanut coordination.

Activist volunteers with "Chomosaich" report that about NINE such girls now are now facing Rayon Dat interview appointments - despite having followed proper procedures to avoid that. A lawyer active assisting the girls is running up against a brick wall.
Thus, these girls will likely need either a more expensive lawyer, or face the prospects faced by other female religious objectors, including threat of arrest, incarceration, and abuse by police, prison, and judicial authorities, as recently experienced by Hadasah Margolit Yakovov (20 y/o daughter of a Chareidi Bucharian immigrants), released after almost a month in Military Prison Four in wake of her refusal to enlist (see last week's post http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2020/07/israeli-army-fighting-to-make.html). That is, unless sufficient public awareness can be raised as to obviate the need to fight the Army on the legal front.

One example is the current Army pursuit Hodoyah E. Noteworthy is that in a written response this week to her attorney, Meitav conveniently neglects to address the recent Rabbanut directive to provide Corona-period extensions to girls requiring Rabbanut assistance, as raised in a letter the attorney sent on behalf of Hodoyah in June.

Furthermore, whatever explanation the Army may proffer to explain this needs to be seen in context of timing. They're embarking on this new policy just as Corona is resurgent. Does the risk of not drafting a few girls actually justify the risk of endangering yet more people within the Army and in the civilian population?

To provide a broader perspective, as was reported in The Jewish Press last December, the Ma'ariv (Nov. 5, '19) reported on the Army declaration of a shocking target goal, aiming to enlist a whopping 40% of national religious high school girls for enlistment in the military. The recent Rayon Dat dragnet fits neatly into that declared Army paradigm (in a modification of a popular expression, "if you can't get them to join you - beat them"), inasmuch as the main target here are teenage girls from traditional and national religious backgrounds. National religious girls are a natural target because their ideological affinity for the declared goals of the Army impedes their families from identifying illicit Maitav attempts to traffic their teenage daughters for less than idealistic purposes.  Traditional girls are simply easy targets, because, in addition to the aforementioned ideological sympathies, their religiosity is more easily disqualified by (often antireligious) Rayon Dat military officers, seeking to draft every non-secular girl they can (for trafficking-related reasons obvious enough render elaboration superfluous).

Volunteers with "Chomosaich"  observe that if this latest Army escalation against traditional and Mizrachi girls is left unchecked, then soon - G-d forbid - the only girls guaranteed their religious service exemption entitlements will be Chareidi girls of politically- connected affiliations