More than 18,000 young women are exempted from military service each year on the grounds that they are religious.
Despite assessments made by senior IDF officials over the years that many recipients of the exemption are not really religious and use the procedure to evade service, a committee set up after heavy pressure and appeals to the High Court operated for only four months and presented minimal results.
Data provided by the IDF to the Hadush Association for Freedom of Religion and Equality under the Freedom of Information Law and published here for the first time show that in recent years tens of thousands of young women have received an exemption from service due to their religion.
Except in 2018, when 17.5 thousand exemptions were registered, in each of the years more than 18,000 young women received the exemption and were released from service.
In 2020, for example, 18,112 young women were released from service.
Of the thousands of applications received each year, only a few hundred are denied.
In 2020, 432 applications were not accepted, compared to 519 in 2019 and 428 in 2018. It should be noted that conservative religious organizations have received in the past for in some cases arbitrarily revoking exemptions in the IDF and based on insufficient evidence that the applicant is not religious.
In order to combat the so-called "plague of false exemptions."
The Security Service Law was amended in 2012 and a temporary ordinance was enacted, according to which a committee will be established with the authority to cancel the recruitment exemption granted to women following a false religious statement.
However, according to Hadush, the IDF and the Ministry of Defense did everything to prevent its establishment.
Only in 2021, following repeated petitions to the High Court, was the committee established, which finally operated for only four months, between March and July 2021, instead of 36 months as finally determined. , Only six were found to be allegedly unresponsive to the terms of the law.
Hadash claims that the figure indicates a deep, and no doubt deliberate, helplessness on the part of IDF officials and the Ministry of Defense.
According to them, the most conservative estimates speak of about 10% of false statements, and the random sample completely failed in its mission.
The organization states that they intend to apply to the High Court in order to force the government and the Ministry of Defense to deal with the matter.
18,000 exemptions a year, Photo: Gideon Markovich
"The scandal of mass exemptions based on false affidavits regarding religious lifestyles is but a parable of the severe damage to the rule of law, the dignity of Judaism, state security and the credibility of state authorities due to the unholy alliance between religion and politics in Israel," "More, Uri Regev "The center, while doing one hand with the army chiefs who are willing to close their eyes to ensure political peace, to ensure that ultra-Orthodox blackmail will be allowed, and ultra-Orthodox who do not want it - will not serve."
The IDF spokesman said in response: "The IDF acts in accordance with the law by fulfilling and enforcing the duty of military service set forth in the Security Service Law in an equal manner. In the process, Ensure the reliability of the applications and prevent abuse of the ground for exemption. In cases where it becomes clear that the conditions for granting the exemption are not met - the application is denied. "At this time, it is not possible to continue bringing cases before the committee."
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