Data forgery? Former senior official accuses Haredi counting game of turmoil • "They tried to put out a small fire and fueled the whole system"

• Illustrative image // Photo: Gideon Markovich

A senior official who has been engaged in IDF recruitment for years accuses Yisrael Today of saying that the reason for the corporation's publication this morning about falsifying ultra-Orthodox recruiting data is the IDF's attempt to cover a significant reduction in IDF recruitment last year. According to him, over the years, the ultra-Orthodox have been counted one way, and to prove that it is still changing has changed their way of counting data.

When they began counting the data in the IDF, in 2011, it was the Ministry of Defense that determined who was ultra-Orthodox. We will be counted as such in the recruitment data, even if he has returned to the question since. The Ministry of Education added the IDF data and the interviews that were examined, thus reaching an accurate number.

Photo: Paz Barr

Two years later, in 2016, this count stood up to the High Court. "Take the data and count it all, along with a person from the Department of Education who made sure all the numbers were correct. We were cross-referenced and this is why the report was submitted to the High Court, of course after a legal counsel's examination, ”the source notes. "There were dozens of institutions that were opened and closed, and the Ministry of Education approved them despite not appearing in its reports." An affidavit filed by the IDF and the Ministry of Defense determined the numbers, which were backed up and transparent, according to the source.

The problem, he says, began in April 2019, when the ultra-Orthodox director of the IDF checked the 2018 data and reached a huge gap, a 20 percent reduction in the ultra-Orthodox mobilization data for the IDF. These figures, the source says, were embarrassing in the IDF, so it was decided to act - change the counting method. The decision was to count only the Ministry of Education's data, without interviews and further examinations, which for many years reduced the number of soldiers in the IDF. Thus, it can be displayed even though there is none.

"Instead of saying there was a 20 percent drop, they changed the numbering method and tried to prove that it was supposed to be on it. They tried to put out a small fire and fueled the whole system. The joke is that everything is backed up in writing and everyone has signed it.

"It's easiest to roll out the apparent mistake about who it was in the past, but it's a stupid thing. The manager failed in her job and that's a fact. They say the figures rose by 300 recruits in a year. It's almost a regiment. You know a unit that opened in those years? Who sees the facts understands that everything is goofy.

The IDF confirmed the claims: "As part of a recent IDF investigation, the ultra-Orthodox recruitment data was reexamined in 2017. This examination revealed gaps in relation to the previous IDF count, at the heart of the gap is the method of calculation.

"As part of this re-examination, a distinction was made between recruits who studied before their recruitment for two years or more at an ultra-Orthodox educational institution, as defined by law, and other ultra-Orthodox recruits who were identified as leading an ultra-Orthodox lifestyle before being recruited. In all the definitions currently set in the law, however, it is essential to conduct an ultra-Orthodox lifestyle. The incident will be investigated by the ECHA and the data was presented to the chief of staff a few weeks ago. "

Demand for investigation

Following the case of the alleged recruitment data case, the Government for Quality Government announced that it would file a police complaint with the aim of launching a criminal investigation into the false witness affidavits in court, and the motion also calls for Defense Minister Naftali Bennett to appoint an investigative committee to investigate how an entire system was operating to lie and conceal The lie in a planned and conscious way.

Chairman of the Movement for Quality Government, Dr. Adv. Eliad Shraga: "The movement has been facing the representatives of the army for twenty years in the High Court and they are lying free with the data. We cry out to the judges that they are lying but it does not help. The IDF is investigating Every operation and military operation, whose reports rely on an almost blind faith in their reliability, lies with a determined forehead. The lie reaches the high ranks and does not end with a lieutenant colonel. What are the values ​​on which the IDF wants to raise generations of soldiers and officers? "

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, former MK and former chief of staff, Maj. Gabi Ashkenazi, a white brush, decided to hold a discussion on ultra-Orthodox recruitment data for the IDF, and to invite representatives of the IDF and the Ministry of Defense. The hearing is scheduled for Monday next week in the morning and will be held in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee room and will also be open to media coverage.