IDF: Israeli Document Forgers?

BS"D

IDF = "Israeli Document Forgers?"

Israeli Army Reportedly Threatening An Illegally-Drafted Religious French Citizen with Military Arrest

... After Fraudulently Obtaining Her Signature on an Enlistment Document

--- in a Language She Doesn't Even Understand

For France, Yet Another Such Complaint Reportedly Comes As No Surprise... 

4 Nissan, 5781 / March 17, '21 [Parshas VaYikra]

BELOW IS THE ORIGINAL* LETTER OF A 19 YEAR-OLD, SINCERE, RELIGIOUS JEWISH FRENCH GIRL, N. D., WHO WAS DECEIVED INTO "VOLUNTEERING" FOR THE ISRAELI ARMY.

To recap this case, recently posted: a religious female French citizen, N. D., 19 years old, recently volunteered to travel to Israel to enlist in the Israeli Army. She did so out of an altruistic (albeit misinformed - due to no fault of her own) motivation to help save Jewish lives. She only enlisted under clear conditions, including securing her ability to a religiously compatible environment, and to return home at will. In return for trusting the Israeli Army headhunters, she has been badly mistreated - as if she were a secular Israeli citizen legally OBLIGATED to serve in the military (again, religious girls are supposed to be exempt, by law) -- and as if none of the promises to her were ever made.

In the wake of intolerable mistreatment in and by the Israeli Army, including violation of all of the preconditions of her volunteering for the IDF, Miss D. recently fled the IDF. We are informed that, on top of everything else, as of early last week, she has been repeatedly threatened with arrest.  Multiple Army calls were made to an Israeli relative, seeking to intimidate Miss D. into handing herself in to the Army.

Giving herself in, of course, would be a disastrous move on her part. Forcing the Israeli Army to actually arrest her would, practically speaking, be her best insurance policy.  If the Army was so comfortable about arresting her, they probably would have done so already. They're clearly not enthusiastic over that option. The reason is simple. IF the Israeli Army would be so cocky as to arrest a religious female French citizen - whom they duped into signing enlistment documents she can't even read* - they would be doing grave harm to their already tainted public image.

[* She isn't an Israeli citizen. She doesn't know Ivrit ("modern Hebrew"). The document given to her to sign to "volunteer" was in Ivrit, and not in easy Ivrit either. They knew she couldn't read it.  Under the false pretense of signing a document of "volunteering" for the Army - with the explicit stipulation that she remains free to return home to France at will - the Army had her sign a document enlisting her as a regular soldier.  Thus, the Israeli Army exploited her idealism and trust -- in a most un-Jewish demonstration of ingratitude and deception. It also thereby essentially forged an enlistment document.  The Army continues to compound their initial fraud with ongoing bullying and abuse by exploiting said forgery to subsequently to deny Miss D. her basic rights.

(Reportedly, the French are familiar with additional similar cases of Israeli Army deception of French Jewish girls.  For every such case we hear about, there are likely over a hundred about which we don't hear.)

° "Making Faking Great Again"

In a similar scenario, on the day after Yom Kippur, 5780 (in October 2019) a 19-year-old religious Ethiopian refusenik girl, Ziva bas Mazal M. (who's plight was reported on repeatedly by The Jewish Press), was reportedly similarly deceived into signing an enlistment document by the Israeli Army. She too remains resolute, enduring the very serious ongoing threat of arrest and incarceration in military prison.]

Apparently due to the difficulty of arresting Miss D., the Army opts to do what they do best: terrorizing girls into handing themselves in, effectively doing the Army's dirty work for them. In these situations, the only thing to fear is fear itself.  Her case, apparently typical of many others, is replete with multiple legal and moral Israeli violations of epic proportions. By remaining passively resolute, she can keep the Army "on defense."

However, that doesn't mean she's safe. She is indeed braving the possibility of arrest, and, possibly, abusive imprisonment in Israeli military jail. Despite formal legal intervention on her behalf, the Army refuses to recognize her basic human and religious rights, including her right to hold the Army to its commitments to her. She concludes her powerful letter: "I never thought I would be subjected to such an aberration, a swindle." 

Her January 31, '21 letter, below, is a window into the plight of untold numbers of idealistic Jewish girls in France, and perhaps around the world. Many such girls are routinely fooled, in one manner or another, via international propagandists for the IDF, into "volunteering" for the Israeli Army - under pretenses that are as premeditatively false as they are convincing.  Realize that we're talking about many innocent, naive girls - including frum and erlich girls.  In France, as unbelievable as it seems, even many sincere, altruistic religious girls are totally unaware of the  Torah prohibition of enlistment in the Israeli Army.  Many imagine that enlistment in the Israeli Army is simply not done by Chareidim, but not actually a prohibited act. As Miss N. D. herself writes below: "In France we are not aware of what is prohibited for young girls - due to lack of information."

* The version below is slightly edited for English punctuation, usage, and clarity. (She wrote in both French and English, but the latter is not her natural language.)   It's authenticity can be verified by contacting Merkoz Hatzoloh, the Orthodox organization in Israel assisting her with legal counsel.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

‪Date: יום א׳, 31 בינו 2021, 12:31‬

 French passport: ...

 Born in Paris on June ..., 2001

 Date of entry into the army: 13/09/2020

I joined the army by "Mahal" (1 year and a half volunteer)

 בס״ד

 My name is Nell D.. I have been in Israel for 1 year without my parents and I have decided to voluntarily enlist in the army for 1.5 years with a visa.

 If I decided to join the army, it is quite simple* because I was ready to help the Jewish people, while being a French citizen.

{* or "simply" Ed.}

 I grew up in a religious family, {Ed.: note THIS ==» } but no one warns us of the risks and dangers of joining the military.  In France we are not aware of what is prohibited for young girls - due to lack of information.  We think of an ideal, that to make the Army is something great - but it is not the reality.

 The decision was difficult because my parents are not with me and it is very difficult not to be with them every day, to be alone in Israel.

 I only wanted to serve in the Army under certain conditions, one of which was very important to be able to return to France.  I was promised that when I wanted I could leave and be with my family, and when I requested it was refused, especially when I unfortunately learned that my father had had an accident and that he was in the hospital (and) that it was urgent for me to return to be with him.  I have been denied a right which is indispensable (and) which {denial -Ed.} I do not accept.

 I haven't seen my parents for over a year, and, especially in this very difficult time for my family, I need to be there.

 I was also promised that the army would be kosher, that the Tsniout* would be respected both in clothing and in speech.

{* aka, "Tzniyut:" Torah standards of modesty and personal purity in matters between the genders - Ed.}

 I have seen and heard things that are the opposite of what I was promised and said -- unlike what I know and [the standards of] where I come from.

 I was promised that the Shabbat would be respected, and all the opposite happened.  Music on speakers all Shabbat is something that is not respectful, and I would even say contempt[ful] for religion; it is absolutely forbidden on Shabbat; the lighting of the plata {hotplate - Ed.} in the middle of Shabbat because they had forgotten, or that the only way to drink is with an electric dispenser; [these are] are prohibitions that oblige me to break Shabbat - because I am prohibited from eating a dish that has been cooked on Shabbat, or from drinking from an electronic source.  In France, we usually go to the synagogue with our family on Friday and Saturday to pray. There was a synagogue - but an empty one - where I cannot follow the Shabbat prayer, which is very important to me. Being the only one in my whole base shomeret Shabbat {Sabbath observant} is something that is not bearable, and that I live very badly.  I spend the day alone every time without my family, without my friends, and in a place that does not suit me.  I have never in my life spent Shabbat like this, and when I tell my officers when I ask them to be able to at least be at home on Shabbat, I am told that this is impossible even if it is very hard for me.  Also, the mix of girls and boys is unacceptable for me to always be together and see things that are against my values.

 I don't feel comfortable, I am feeling very bad, and I don't feel able to stay in an environment like this.  All the things that the Army had promised me are not respected, and I no longer have the strength to remain in this environment, in this living environment which does not suit me. {Ed. NOTE ==»»}  If I had known I would never have committed and would never have agreed to sign the contract.  They have exploited my naivety and my ignorance of the fact that I am a young French girl wanting to help, and I have been deceived (in)to (making me) believe things which are nothing but pure lies. I consider this to be dishonesty. I have been deceived.

 I no longer wish to stay in the Army because all the conditions for which I am enlisted are not respected.

 I demand the immediate cancellation of my engagement in the army because I suffer humiliation from day to day.  All the promises they made to me have no value.  I never thought I would be subjected to such an aberration, a swindle."

__________________________________________________________

{End of English letter; French letter available, and published online as well.} 

She and others like her are enduring tremendous nisyonos (spiritual tests) in the wake of our communal failure to assist them.  That overall communal failure is due in great measure to overall frum media silence on these  persecutions. However, "Middah Tovah Merubah:" try to imagine the reward in store for those who seek to help these brave souls on the front lines in the war for the future of the Jewish People. One can try to visualize the reward, but, in truth, anything we "imagine" pales in comparison to the reality.