Israel women also get to oppress Palestinians! How’s that for feminism!!!
Every year thousands of Israeli women seek to opt-out of mandatory service in the Israeli occupation army (or IDF) by claiming that they are Orthodox or ultra-Orthodox Jews. The IDF allows for a religious exemption since many observant Jews refuse to adhere to many of the requirements and qualifications of conscription. Paradoxically the IDF is also experiencing a takeover by fundamentalist Jews who manage to balance their religious observance with military service amalgamated with a fanatical militarism against the Palestinians and support for further colonization for the West Bank (but that’s for another post).
Nonetheless, many Orthodox Jews are exempt from service and many secular Israeli women now tell IDF recruitment that they are Orthodox in order to avoid service. Of the 35% of Israeli Jewish women who claim to be religious devote, the IDF estimates that many of them – thousands – are actually secular and qualify for service. But the women are deceiving the board in order to avoid it.
The IDF, always in need of Israeli bodies to preside over a military occupation over the Palestinians and protect illegal Israeli settlements and settlers, has begun to crack down on these “draft dodgers”, if you will, through several means – including Facebook – to determine if the women are truly Orthodox.
According to the far-right, pro-Likud Jerusalem Post the IDF has appointed “six investigation offices looking for women who falsely declare that they are religious.”
One woman who claimed to be observant posted a photo on Facebook of herself eating in a non-kosher restaurant, and women posting photos in immodest clothing were also reported. Investigators also sent invitations to parties ostensibly taking place on Friday nights, and then caught the “religious” women who came.
And, another women, “updated her profile on the Sabbath.”
This, however, is part of a larger problem for the IDF as more and more Israeli avoid service:
Maj. Gen. Avi Zamir, told reporters that up to 60 percent of eligible 18-year-olds will try to opt out of military service by 2020. The main reason for the declining percentage of Israelis serving in the military, Major General Zamir said, is the number of men claiming to hold ultra-Orthodox beliefs. In 2006, less than 10 percent of those eligible for the draft claimed exemptions for being ultra-Orthodox. In 2010 the number was 13 percent. By 2020, the military expects it to increase to 20 percent.
H/T to The Lede for this story and as one commentator on the site put it:
I hope their investigations are unsuccessful. The fewer soldiers Israel has to occupy Palestinian lands and violate international law, the better.
