Against the background of claims that the IDF has become "half the people's army" and "two IDFs for two peoples", the IDF Human Resources Division presented today (Thursday) new data that attempt to disprove the claim that members of the periphery from the weak strata are assigned to units the battlefield, and in contrast the residents of the center from the powerful strata serve in the requested technological units.
From the activity of the fighting units in the IDF (archive) // IDF spokesperson
According to the data, the absolute majority of those who have a high DPR (initial psychotechnical rating tests at the recruitment office) enlist for combat service: 81% of the men who enlist in the IDF and have a high DPR of 70 or higher are assigned to combat roles, with 72% of them assigned to combat units On land. According to the IDF, most of the soldiers who come from a high socio-economic background - serve in the IDF as combatants. 85% of them serve in units where there are no sorties, that is, in the "regular" battalions and not in the special patrols.
Combat units in the IDF, photo: IDF spokesperson
Technology units in the IDF, photo: IDF spokesperson
The IDF also presented data showing that as the socio-economic index rises, the percentage of those serving as combatants only increases. As an example, the leading cities in recruiting for the IDF are those of the secular middle class from the center of the country: Modi'in (cluster 9), Ra'anana (cluster 8), Kfar Saba (cluster 8), Herzliya (cluster 8), Rishon Lezion (cluster 7), Ramat Gan (cluster 8), Rehovot (cluster 7).
The army is very disturbed by the current divisive discourse, according to which IDF fighters only come from the periphery, while residents of the center only enlist in the technological units. At the same time, the IDF also admits that there is a direct connection between the socio-economic background from which the Israelis come and Zionism Their DPR, and therefore, most of the employees in the technological positions do come from the higher deciles.
Indeed, when you look at who serves in the sought-after technological units of the IDF - you find that 37% come from cluster 9, 15% from cluster 8 and 10% of them from cluster 10, which is only 4% of the population. One of the ways to deal with this is to limit the number Those with a combat profile who serve in the technological units for only 700 in each recruitment cycle.
warriors
The IDF is concerned about the divisive discourse, photo: IDF spokesman
Technological units in the IDF. Most of them come from the higher clusters, photo: IDF spokesperson
And yet the IDF states that the top four deciles in Israeli society enlist more than their size in the population, want more to go serve in combat units, and are more likely to be assigned to combat. But a small asterisk must be added to this, since the bottom deciles are mainly Arabs and Haredim, who do not enlist in the IDF either .
In total, according to the army's data, about 68.8% of those required to be drafted in the State of Israel, excluding the Arab population, enlist in the IDF, and when the ultra-Orthodox population is subtracted from the number, about 85% of society enlists in the IDF.
16.4% of the company does not enlist due to the "teaching and art" exemption, 14.8% receive a medical or mental exemption (8.8% exemption on mental grounds).
In the Druze society known for high recruitment rates, the recruitment rate is 71%.
Only 9% of the ultra-Orthodox society enlists in the IDF. The figures presented by the army do not include the dropout of soldiers during service, where in the fighting units it stands at a low double-digit number, but in other units the numbers are much higher.
Half of the people's army?, photo: IDF spokesman
The IDF also tried to disprove the claim that there are more religious people than seculars in BHD 1.
From the data presented by the IDF yesterday, it appears that 71% of the officers in combat studied in state schools, 26% from state-religious education, 1% ultra-Orthodox and 2% unknown. At the same time, the IDF admits that young people from state-religious education go into the army 9% more than its relative size in the population.
The head of the personnel department in the IDF, General Yaniv Asor: "Combat service must be preserved as the leading ethos in the military service.
An ethos on which we were educated and on which we will continue to educate future generations.
The recruits for the battle are the elite young people of Israeli society, its beautiful faces, valuable and quality youth driven by deep values of mission."
Officers course end ceremony.
Only 26% graduate from state-religious education, photo: IDF spokesman
were we wrong
We will fix it!
If you found an error in the article, we would appreciate it if you shared it with us
