Since last year, regional [IDF]recruitment offices received more than
3,000 haredim for the initial screening procedures that are
the first step in assigning inductees to the correct units and the correct jobs for their individual aptitudes. The IDF and Likud have trumpeted that number. But a new investigation shows that many of these haredim do not cooperate with the induction process at all. The majority of the haredi recruits refuse to answer even the most basic
questions regarding their home address or telephone number – and they are not criminally prosecuted for that.
Ynet reports:
…Since last year the regional [IDF]recruitment offices received more than 3,000 haredi youths for initial screening procedures, intended to be the first step in a long military service. While the IDF prides itself on the fact, an examination by Ynet shows that many of these young people do not cooperate during the phases of the process, and in fact do everything to convey the unambiguous message "We have no intention of joining you and you would be better served by not wasting any time on us.”…IDF sources say the recruits do the bare minimum to avoid being categorized as draft dodgers, and that's where their cooperation ends.…
The first conscription order is a crucial step in the career of every IDF soldier. In several hours of evaluations, interviews and medical examinations, a profile is compiled that determines the potential range of roles and units where the recruit might serve. Yet the majority of the haredi recruits refuse to answer even the most basic questions regarding their home address or telephone number.
"Don't you realize we're the ones that guarantee the security of the state with our prayers?" one yeshiva student asked his screening officers. Others spoke only Yiddish, refusing to speak Hebrew to the screening officers despite speaking the language perfectly well outside the induction office. Finally, some said they would enlist only if the IDF did their matchmaking for them and supplied them with brides.
"I could've done well at the psychometric tests as I know math, but I picked the wrong answers deliberately," one reluctant recruit told Ynet. "We just wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. We won't go to the army anyway, what does it matter then if my marks in the tests are low?"
Other draftees said they thought the IDF could have made things easier to them by selecting exclusively male screening officers to hold the tests.…
The bottom line is that it appears that the IDF, under the direction of Israel's Likud Defense Minister and Likud Prime Minister, have been covering this up to protect Likud's relationship with its once and future haredi allies.