IDF agrees to draft pullout foes
By Nadav Shragai Haaretz 16 January 2006
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/670617.html

The Israel Defense Forces has reversed its earlier decision and will allow
137 young people suspected of committing crimes during the disengagement to
be inducted into the army.

The IDF decided on the induction following a meeting last weekend between
the chief of staff, Dan Halutz, senior officers and leaders of the Yesha
Council of settlements. Halutz ordered that the young people who are being
investigated be drafted in March, assuming they have not been convicted of
any crimes.

After Yesha Council heads Bentzi Leiberman and Pinhas Wallerstein told the
officers at the meeting that young men of draft age were being questioned by
the army about their attitude to disengagement, the chief of the IDF Human
Resources Division, Major General Elazar Stern, issued an order to stop such
interrogation.

"I have recently been made aware," Stern wrote in the order, "of a number of
complaints by candidates for army service who say that in various interviews
they are asked questions such as `Where were you during disengagement?' Or:
`Rabbi or commander - who will you listen to?' Or, `What do you think of the
disengagement?' The number of such complains is small, and it is clear these
questions are not systematic or directed from above. I have decided to make
clear beyond any doubt that such questions should not be asked."

Stern also wrote that such questions "were not the business of the military
authorities and they should have no affect on the classification, draft, or
placement process in the IDF (although this may not be so in extreme
cases)."

With regard to questions of "dual authority," Stern said, IDF soldiers had
"proved their ability to cope with this dilemma, and the limited proportions
of the phenomenon of refusal show that these questions may not and should
not be asked when it is not essential."