IDF Provides IPC With Information on “Dangerous” Draftees

IDF Provides IPC with Information on “Dangerous” Draftees

In response to the Israel Policy Center’s (IPC’s) demand, filed under Israel’s Freedom of Information Act, the IDF provided IPC with data on the number of draftees examined for representing, in the IDF’s opinion, a danger to the public. IPC suspects that “dangerousness” screening is being used a pretext to disqualify draftees on the basis of their political orientation or religious background.

In a television program last February devoted to the phenomenon of young religious draftees whom the IDF falsely classifies as psychiatrically incompetent, Col. Tziki Sela of the IDF’s Manpower Division revealed that the IDF operates a “dangerousness procedure” through which it selects certain draftees for examination on suspicion that they will use the Army weapons for illicit purposes. IPC immediately requested the IDF to provide data on the number of people examined and how their cases were disposed of, as well as the text of the “dangerousness procedure.”

After several months—the maximum period allowed by law—the IDF provided IPC with the statistics requested at the start of the month. According to the IDF’s figures, 2600 draftees were examined under the “dangerousness” procedure during the period 1999-2007. During this period only 9 draftees were disqualified as representing a danger to the public. However, close to half of the 2600 examined were disqualified from service for a variety of other reasons, a far higher proportion than the general population.

Surprisingly, medical (including psychiatric) reasons or a criminal record, taken together, represented only a minority of those disqualified. Most of the disqualified were excluded from service for amorphous and ill-defined reasons of “social maladjustment.” Almost a quarter of those examined came under scrutiny in 2006 alone, the year after disengagement. 2007 shows a significant fall both in the number scrutinized and the number disqualified. IPC published the results of its study on political interrogations in the IDF in early 2007. The data suggest that the “dangerousness procedure,” and particularly the decision to disqualify a draftee from service, is in urgent need of review.

The key to determining whether the IDF applies the “dangerousness procedure” objectively and without political bias is to examine the criteria which lead to a draftee’s inclusion in the population deemed potentially “dangerous.” However, the IDF refused to provide IPC with the text of the “dangerousness procedure.” An IDF attorney intimated in a conversation with Dr Klein of IPC that this is because the “procedure” was, in fact, drawn up by the GSS, Israel’s Secret Service. IPC is considering whether to challenge this refusal in court.

IPC is analyzing the data provided by the IDF and will publish a full report on its implications.