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Israel
Conscription
Military service in Israel was mandatory, beginning at age eighteen,
for male and female citizens and resident aliens. The length of
compulsory military service has varied according to IDF personnel
needs. In 1988 male conscripts served three years and females
twenty months. New immigrants, if younger than eighteen years
of age upon arrival, were subject to the same terms of conscription
when they reached eighteen. Male immigrants aged nineteen to twenty-three
served for progressively reduced periods, and those twenty-four
or older were conscripted for only 120 days. Female immigrants
over the age of nineteen were exempted from compulsory service.
Immigrants who had served in the armed forces of their countries
of origin had the length of their compulsory service in Israel
reduced.
Exemptions for Jewish males were rare, and about 90 percent of
the approximately 30,000 men who reached age eighteen each year
were drafted. Several hundred ultra-Orthodox students studying
at religious schools, yeshivot (sing., yeshiva--see Glossary)
followed a special four-year program combining studies and military
duty. The Ministry of Defense estimated, however, that in 1988
about 20,000 of the most rigidly Orthodox yeshiva students, who
felt little allegiance to Zionism and the Israeli state, were
escaping the draft through an endless series of deferments. From
a strictly military point of view, their value to the IDF would
be limited because of restrictions on the jobs they would be able
or willing to perform. Although the military served kosher food
and adhered to laws of the Jewish sabbath and holidays, secular
soldiers were lax in their observance.
An academic reserve enabled students to earn a bachelor's degree
before service, usually in a specialized capacity, following basic
training; such students reported for reserve duty during summer
vacations. Conscientious objectors were not excused from service,
although an effort was made to find a noncombatant role for them.
The minimum physical and educational standards for induction were
very low to insure that a maximum number of Jewish males performed
some form of service in the IDF. Conscripts were screened on the
basis of careful medical and psychological tests. Those with better
education and physical condition were more likely to be assigned
to combat units. Sons and brothers of soldiers who had died in
service were not accepted for service in combat units unless a
parental waiver was obtained.
Several elite units were composed exclusively of volunteers.
They included air force pilots, paratroops, the submarine service,
naval commandos, and certain army reconnaissance units. Because
of the large number of candidates, these units were able to impose
their own demanding selection procedures. The air force enjoyed
first priority, enabling it to select for its pilot candidates
the prime volunteers of each conscript class. Conscripts also
could express preferences for service in one of the regular combat
units. The Golani Infantry Brigade, which had acquired an image
as a gallant frontline force in the 1973 and 1982 conflicts, and
the armored corps were among the preferred regular units.
Data as of December 1988
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