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IPC Applies under Israel’s “Freedom of Information Law” to obtain numbers of IDF’s “Hazardous draftee” procedure

 

In the wake of a Channel 1 documentary  based on  IPC’s work with young religious draftees to the IDF who undergo political interrogations in the IDF’s induction centers, the IDF and the GSS  acknowledged  that  they  have developed a “hazardous draftee  procedure,”  ostensibly to identify and winnow out draftees whose psychological profile creates a suspicion that they might use the weapons the IDF gave them to perform hate crimes against Arabs.  Such an event occurred on August 4, 2005 in the Arab town of Shefaram, but the “procedure” has been in place since 1999. 

Under Israel’s Freedom of Information Law, IPC requested the text of the “procedure” form the IDF and also statistics regarding the number and geographic distribution of those subjected to it since 1999.  As of this writing, the IDF has replied that it is gathering the information.

 

The documentary, on Channel 1’s “Mabat Sheni” (“A Second Look) program, was screened in February this year.  It featured some of IPC’s “cases” of young men and women who underwent political interrogations, after which some were left hanging by the IDF for lengthy periods of time, neither drafted nor exempted from service, while some actually were disqualified from service for psychiatric disabilities, on the basis of “diagnoses” later shown to be false.  Nothing in their profiles indicated that they posed any danger to innocent civilians; in the case of one victim of a “psychiatric” disqualification, the record of her initial interview in the Beersheba induction center was clearly falsified by a hostile interviewer.  In the documentary the victims of the procedure described their anger at being subject to political interrogations, their frustration at being unable to get on with their lives, being neither drafted to the IDF nor exempt (and thus ineligible to work).  One victim of a false psychiatric diagnosis remarked that the IDF had put a “stain on her back” that she could neither observe nor remove. 

When asked to comment on the documentary, the GSS acknowledged that the young people were victims of its “hazardous draftee procedure,” which has been in place since 1999, and that several hundred young people were subjected to it without their knowledge in 2006 and 2007.  The procedure is meant to clarify draftees’ attitudes to Arabs but, from IPC’s research, it would appear to be widely abused to screen draftees’ according to their political opinions and religious affiliation as well. 

While the IDF and the GSS definitely have an interest in preventing a repetition of the Shefaram incident, the problem with the “procedure” is that it is not transparent and takes place behind closed doors.  Nobody is responsible for reviewing the procedure and the person subjected to it has no means of appeal.  It can easily be abused by the IDF and/or the GSS to conduct political interrogations.  According to IPC records, it would appear that it is sufficient for a young person to participate in political activity, or activity the GSS thinks is political (such as sleeping out overnight in the countryside of Judaea and Samaria), to be subjected to the procedure.

 

Yuval Diskin, Head of Israel’s GSS.  The GSS and the IDF together administer the “hazardous draftee” procedure.

Maj. Gen. Elazar Stern, head of the IDF’s manpower division.

 

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