IDF recruitment office in Jerusalem
IDF recruitment office in JerusalemOri Lantz, Flash 90

Rabbi Tzvi Yisrael Tau, head of Yeshivat Har Hamor, was exposed to the testimonies of religious girls who were called to interviews at recruitment offices to ascertain whether they maintain a religious way of life that gives them the possibility of receiving an exemption from military service.

Rabbi Tau attacked the recruitment offices and called on the girls not to cooperate. "[Better that] they sit in jail and say, 'We are willing to do anything to stop this atrocity.' This is a crime, a crime against the girls. It is an expression of lack of trust. It is suspiciousness. And there is a political interest in it. Another force is involved, it does not have a military goal. It does not have a security goal."

The rabbi emphasized that, even if a religious girl knows that she will receive the exemption from enlistment as soon as she arrives at the interview, she is forbidden to attend an interview at the recruitment office. "We have to think about the people in general, we have to stop the phenomenon, it's persecution and coercion, and the legislator did not intend this.”

"No legislator of conscription meant for this. This is abuse, a [narrow] political interest that interferes with something that is blatantly about the people in a general sense. Army and security are built on trust. This is brotherhood in arms? " wondered Rabbi Tau.

"This thing is capitulation from the get-go and it's rotten. We have to imbue in [the girls] courage and heroism. The people of Israel need brave daughters. Brave girls saved Israel. The daughters of Israel have always been ready for sacrifice. Where is the spirit? Where is the strength? And they don’t need to be afraid of anything. If there is no courage, they will be convinced and compromise on religion, and there will be capitulation, and there will be drifting with the current and with the dominant culture ... The girls will refuse this thing. "

The organization that signed Rabbi Tau's statement and is identified with Yeshivat Har Hamor hopes that the petition submitted to the Supreme Court by the organization will stop the phenomenon of interviews of religious girls conducted at the recruitment offices.

"We hope that the court will be aware of the girls' distress and put an end to the abusive conduct of the recruitment offices, which exceeds the limits of their authority under the law. A girl who wants to contribute her part to the state in the framework of national service, as the law allows her to do, does not need to undergo an invasive investigation that harms her privacy and questions her credibility as if she is the lowest of offenders. "

“In the course of our handling of hundreds of cases of summons for ‘religion interviews’ and disqualification of exemptions, we have been exposed to a system that makes arbitrary decisions according to unclear and unacceptable criteria, with the final decision made by a researcher who often does not understand and know the way of life of religious girls. And he determines which of the girls is religious enough in his opinion, and who does not meet the standards he himself set, "added the organization's members.