On video: The State Comptroller on the separation fence: "They abandoned the barrier that cost billions" (State Comptroller's Office)
Infiltration without warning and thousands of illegal Palestinian residents who enter Israel unimpeded every day.
This is the omission that emerges from the state comptroller's report published this afternoon (Tuesday). The comptroller Matanahu Engelman and his office team compiled a report dealing with security issues, according to which in 2021, approximately 1.4 million Shebam entered through the gaps in the separation fence, and even today 6,000 Shebam are also entering a day.
In addition, the report shows a worrying picture according to which since 2017, the IDF has decided not to fix loopholes and all this while the Prime Minister and the Cabinet knew about the omission and did not act.
The State Comptroller found that as of the end of 2021, nearly half of the length of the Seam Line fence was unfit or partially fit according to the indicators of the IOS Division. Central Command documents show that in 2020 and 2021, 918 thousand and 1.4 million (respectively) entries were identified "Haim to Israel through the gaps in the barrier in the Efraim and Menasha spatial divisions.
The auditor and his team also found that the decision to stop repairing the damage to the fence was not preceded by an orderly process that included an examination of the expected effects of reducing the repairs, and this was also due to the reduction of the workforce, which over the years was reduced from 2002 to 2019 and to March 2022 by approximately 70 percent.
Engelman points out in the report that the cessation of repairing the gaps in the fence led to a continuous deterioration in the efficiency of the IDF barrier from 92 percent of efficiency in 2018 to 52 percent at the end of 2021. The meaning, the auditor states, is the loss of governance in the area without an alternative solution to prevent infiltration into Israel's territories Israel.
Regarding the cabinet's responsibility, Engelman states that the problems with the fence along the seam line were presented to the decision makers in the Ministry of Defense as well as to the prime minister and the political-security cabinet from 2017 onwards.
However, the report states, the cabinet did not discuss actions to improve the barrier until the murder of 11 Israelis in attacks carried out by terrorists who infiltrated Israel through loopholes in the barrier in March and April of last year. As you may remember, the month of March last year was particularly bloody with 12 Israelis killed in attacks.
Only in April 2022, following a wave of terrorist attacks, was a budget of NIS 360 million allocated by the cabinet for the construction of a wall to replace a 40 km long section of the fence. The auditor points out that while this may reduce the phenomenon of infiltration, it is not a complete and comprehensive plan. According to police data, it appears From the report, in 2021 the number of arrests of Shabaim was only 6,823 out of approximately 1.4 million Shabaim who entered.
It also emerged that only 5 percent of all the transporters who were investigated were arrested during the examined period.
The separation fence in June last year (photo: Amir Bohbot)
Deficiencies in infrastructure and a rising non-recruitment rate
The auditor's report examined not only the issue of the fence. Another issue was the living conditions and infrastructure for active and reserve fighters. The auditor's office team toured various camps and surveyed more than 800 male and female fighters in the period between November 2021 and April 2022. The auditor found that the budget for the programs was 492 million Shekels and was less than the planned budgeting by about 27 percent. The result was that some of the plans were not implemented at all. As part of the tours, it was found that infrastructure such as toilets, showers and kitchens - 37 percent of them were not in order or partially in order.
The auditor's report also includes follow-up audits of various security issues. Among other things, the report found that there was an increase of about 4 percent in the failure to recruit a "Torah art" party among men and an increase of about 2 percent in the failure to recruit religious parties among women in the 2003 birth yearbooks - 1998. The total projected rate of non-recruitment to the IDF for children in 2003 is 31 percent for men and 45 percent of the recruitment potential for women.
Another thing that emerges from the report concerns the issue of recruiting for the technological units, and here too the data is not encouraging. The proportion of residents of the periphery serving in the main technological courses is about half of their proportion in the units in the general army: about 16.5 percent in the technological courses compared to about 32 percent in the units in the general army.
A 4 percent increase in the non-mobilization of the "Torah Art" party.
Those photographed have nothing to do with the article (Photo: Reuven Castro)
The ridiculous salary of the individual soldiers
Another follow-up audit deals with the treatment of individual soldiers during their service and after their release.
The auditor found that the number of individual soldiers who served in the IDF in December 2021 was 6,613 and most of them remained in Israel. The harsh criticism that emerges from this chapter points out that since the previous audit that was done in the State Comptroller's office, the monthly income without subsistence allowance in the years 2017-2022 increased by only NIS 54 per 1,136 shekels per month. 5 percent of the lone soldiers questioned by the auditor's office reported that this salary covered all their expenses.
In addition, most of the lone soldiers live in rented apartments and 44 percent of them encountered difficulties in financing rent and maintenance expenses. The auditor found that there was attrition With the aid that the IDF provides to individual soldiers as part of its participation in rent expenses.
Another chapter in the comprehensive State Comptroller's report dealt with the transfer of IDF camps from the center of the country to the south.
This is a program called Shoham (Marketing and Relocation of Camps). As part of the report, it was found that Utah, seven years after the start of the program, has evacuated approximately 65 percent of the total area that the security establishment was required to evacuate.
The marketing of more than 15,000 housing units, most of them in the center of the country, is being delayed due to delays in clearing the camps.
In practice, the marketing of tens of thousands of housing units was delayed due to the prolongation of the process of evacuating the camps.
The city of the Behadim in the Negev. The people photographed have no relation to the news (photo: official website, -)
In other issues in the report, the State Comptroller found that there is a delay of about four years in the completion of the supply and putting into operation of four protective ships to protect Israel's economic waters. The original designation was at the beginning of 2019, but now the project is expected to be completed this year
. Israeli-managed industry in the Judea and Samaria region, the auditor found that the deficiencies he pointed out in the past have not been corrected. Among other things, safety standards have not been met in all factories, and the Administration for the Regulation and Enforcement of the Labor Branch in the Ministry of Economy does not conduct proactive audits in the industrial areas of the IOS regarding the payment of minimum wages to employers Israelis in Yosh.
In the chapter of the report that dealt with the evacuation of Israeli settlement points in the Judea and Samaria region, the auditor found that between 2012 and 2022, 115 families were evacuated from Magron, Amona, Ofra, and the Path of the Fathers. Auditor Analegman found that there was no responsible body that included the work of the various bodies that were charged with the responsibility of implementing decisions The auditor also found that the Prime Minister's Office did not hold follow-up discussions on the manner in which the Government's decisions to evacuate settlements were implemented, and there was also a delay in arranging temporary housing for the Amona evacuees, so that there was an unnecessary financial expenditure of 5 million shekels. It also emerged that the former Cabinet Secretary did not report to the Prime Minister on the implementation The decision related to the evacuation of the residents of the Path of the Ancestors every three months as determined by the government itself. Although the decision allocated an amount of 6 million shekels to aid the evacuees, 26 requests for aid were submitted and so far they have not been discussed. The auditor found that the government's decisions did not include reference to the issue of welfare.
Another chapter in the report concerned the representation of different populations in government-defense companies. According to the report, the employment rate of people with disabilities in the aerospace industry was only 2.3 percent and in Rafael 0.58 percent.
This is a lower percentage than stipulated in the expansion order to encourage and increase the employment of people with disabilities, which is 3 percent.
It was also found that the employment rates of the members of the ultra-orthodox population are lower than their rate at working age, and so is the case among members of the Druze community.
Ethiopians, for example, are employed at Rafael at a rate of only 0.58 percent compared to IAI with 2.3 percent.
The auditor also checked the activities of the Authority for the Prohibition of Money Laundering and found that 27 percent of the reports reviewed by the Authority were not entered into the database at all and in another 27 percent of the reports deficiencies in the extraction of information were found.
In addition, a lot of information coming from certain bodies on the issues of money laundering and terrorist financing which amounted to 3,567 reports in the years 2017-2021 has not been exhausted.
Comments
In response, the Ministry of Defense stated: "The data of the defense system, which were transferred to the State Comptroller's Office, contradict the data published in the audit report.
The defense establishment has invested NIS 8.3 billion in the seam area in the last 20 years.
The vast majority of the investment exists and is maintained to this day and includes walls, roads, camps, crossings, technologies, security guards, and more. The amount that was 'lost' due to the breaches is estimated at only NIS 32 million over 20 years of maintaining the fence and repairing breaches. For over a year the security fence has been 100% functional and is being repaired every day. Before the escalation and Operation Shuver Shalom, the fence's serviceability stood at approximately 82 percent. Within two weeks of the start of the operation, the Border Directorate closed the barrier and it is at 100 percent serviceable. Contrary to what is claimed in the report , there was no decrease in fence repairs, but the opposite."
Regarding the relocation of the IDF camps, the Ministry of Defense said: "As part of the program, the Ministry of Defense and the IDF evacuated more than 5,300 dunams. These days, the ministry is promoting two huge projects that will allow the evacuation of an additional 2,500 dunams in Zirifin and Tel Hashomer."
Regarding the treatment of discharged soldiers, the office said: "The department and fund for discharged soldiers helps single discharged soldiers to the extent of tens of millions of shekels per year. The department and fund will study the findings of the report and work to further improve the relationship with the single discharged soldiers."
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Army and security
Tags
The seperation wall; the security fence
State Comptroller
State Comptroller's Report
Shebahim
Illegal residents
IDF
lone soldiers
