The IDF intends to dismantle its haredi administrative division, due to criticism regarding its functioning and performance in recent years, Galei Zahal reported.
Over the past decade, the administration has been responsible for drafting haredim and ensuring their needs are met. Now, the head of the Brigade for Planning and Management of Manpower is examining shutting it down.
If the plan is executed, the responsibilities currently handled by the administrative division will be transferred to the Brigade for Planning and Management of Manpower, under the supervision of Haredi Branch head Avigdor Dickstein, who will be charged with dismantling the administration and inserting and ensuring the enlistment of haredim in of the military's tracks.
The process follows criticism regarding the administration's failure to enlist haredim in the IDF. In 2019, the Numa Committee found revealed severe deficits in the administration's functioning, including failure to meet the enlistment goals and seemingly falsifying the haredi enlistment rates.
The IDF responded: "We will not discuss what is said in closed discussions. When a decision is made on an issue, by means of the accepted processes, it will be publicized in the accepted fashion."
Lieutenant Colonel Dickstein, the highest-ranking haredi officer in the IDF, was appointed to head the Haredi Branch at the beginning of the month. The appointment was reported by Kan Reshet Bet, and is intended to ensure that the conditions necessary to best integrate haredim into the IDF are met.
"This is a clear message to the haredi community, that we are serious," a senior source in the IDF said. "We seriously intend to carefully protect the haredi lifestyle during the period of military service."
As part of his new role, Dickstein will also work to encourage haredim to enlist, while preserving their religious lifestyle.
Sources in the IDF emphasized that the appointment is intended to clarify that there is no intention to force the enlisting haredim to change their worldviews.
It follows recommendations by the committee headed by Major General (res.) Eliezer Shakedi, which worked earlier this year to examine the issue of integrating haredim into the IDF. MKs from the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee have also been informed of the new appointment.