Officials in the IDF’s Human Resources Branch have doubled the budget to enable significantly increasing the staff of private detectives hired by the military to follow female inductees who sign a declaration that they are Shomer Shabbos.

After receiving a draft notice, a female may report to the local Chief Rabbinate office, complete a number of forms and pay the NIS 18 charge and then report with those forms to the induction center. Generally speaking, if a female declares herself Shomer Shabbos, she will receive a deferment from military service within a month, in what IDF officials describe as “too easy a process”.

To date, a small number of detectives were hired to follow some of the girls whose statement is questionable in the eyes of induction center officials. If they are caught violating the Shabbos, their religious deferment is withdrawn and they draft process is continued. Now, the IDF hopes to increase the number of detectives to apprehend those submitting fraudulent declarations.

According to IDF statistics, in 1991, 21.3% of females eligible for the draft received religious deferments. Today, that number is 33.1% and they predict that by 20-12, it will reach 34.3%.

According to Colonel Chicky Sela, of the Human Resources Branch, 30%-40% of the females who recently declared they are Shomer Shabbos are not, as they subsequently learned.

“She can come by car on Yom Kippur eating a traif sandwich and I must abide by her declaration according to the law,” Sela added.

As  an aside, IDF officials report that there is an increase in the number of genuinely religious girls entering the IDF, coming from National Religious stream.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)