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)
.....
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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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
