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Photo: AFP
IDF announces mass closure of training institutes
Move comes after concerns raised that external training institutes for IDF soldiers espouse controversial opinions and insert political positions; number of such institutions providing content to mandatory service soldiers to decrease from 97 to 15, institutions serving career soldiers to drop from 97 to 78.
The IDF has decided to make significant cuts in the number of external training institutes that provide educational content to IDF soldiers.
Moreover, they will only be permitted to focus on a limited number of subjects, including Holocaust memorial and heroism, battle heritage and the prevention of phenomena such as drugs, irresponsible use of weapons and suicide.
The decision comes after years of concern raised about the institutes by officials arguing that they espouse controversial positions and political opinions.
According to the change, which will go into effect on April 1, the number of external institutes that will be allowed to propagate their educational content to soldiers enlisted in mandatory service will decrease from 97 to 15.
File photo (Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
Moreover, they will only be permitted to focus on a limited number of subjects, including Holocaust memorial and heroism, battle heritage and the prevention of phenomena such as drugs, irresponsible use of weapons and suicide.
Additionally, the number of the institutes that will transfer content to career soldiers (those who have signed beyond the mandatory service time) will be decreased from 97 to 78. This remaining institutes will operate in accordance with the rank of the soldiers and subjects that will be monitored under the supervision of the Education Corps.
Senior officer: 'Commanders will bridge the gaps created'
A senior officer in the Education Corps said that the staff work was carried out in coordination with officials in the IDF’s Rabbinate, and stressed that there is no connection between staff work and lectures by rabbis and religious soldiers, which will continue to be given under supervision and permission by the military Rabbinate.
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The official added that “The gap that will be created from the point of view of educational classes that are supposed to be transferred to soldiers in mandatory service will be filled by the soldiers’ own commander, who will give the lessons in accordance with emphasis given by the IDF as a state army in a Jewish and democratic state, while preserving the model of the people’s army.”
