The Knesset Subcommittee for personnel and human resources, headed by MK Amir Ohana (Likud), convened Wednesday to discuss ways to increase the percentage of the potential number of recruits to the IDF who actually enlist.
Lt. Col. Karen Ben Natan-Kruger, the Head of the Technological Personnel Administration in the IDF Human Resources Division, reviewed the recruitment statistics to the committee members.
The weighted rate of recruitment of men and women stands today at about 65% of the potential recruitment, and is expected to drop further by 2020. The rate of recruitment has fallen from 75% in 1990. About 28% of eligible males and 41% of eligible females do not enlist in the IDF.
IDF dropout figures for 2016 stood at 14.6% for men and 7.4% for women. The majority of army dropouts from both genders come from soldiers who are not assigned to a unit.
Lt. Col. Ben Natan-Kruger said: "Recruitment for all remains our top priority. The majority of dropouts occur at the beginning of the army service."
She also provided recruitment figures for various population groups in Israel, including Bedouin, Druze, new immigrants, and Christians.
Pini Ganon, the coordinator for social security in the Defense Ministry, discussed the barriers to the recruitment of soldiers from minority populations, including the cutting of funding for centers dedicated to promoting recruitment among minorities, negative societal attitudes minority soldiers experience, and a bureaucracy that can takes months to respond to a request by a citizen to enlist.