September 18, 2007

Onward Christian soldiers?

I've caused a bit of controversy with my previous post because of the words:
the phrase "discharged soliders" is a synonym for "non-Palestinians," since Palestinians are not allowed, by law, to be soldiers. This is a common tactic used to discriminate against Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Well that led to a mild mannered correction here and a not so mild mannered one here. They revolve around the categories of human being that can or must join the Israeli army. All of which reminded me of this piece I read some time ago but I don't really know how true it is:
Conscription of Non-Arab Christians

(Chief of Manpower Department, February 1986; Standing Order 43 01-02 -
Conscription of Christians into Israel Defence Forces)

1) Procedure for conscripting Christians into the IDF:

2) For the purpose of the present order, a Christian is one who is a
Christian according to Jewish Law, and is not an Arab by nationality.

3) A Christian who came to Israel as an `oleh [=Jewish immigrant to
Israel -MM], or whose parents came to Israel as `olim [= plural of `oleh],
will be conscripted to the IDF.

4) A Christian whose father is a Jew - will be conscripted to the IDF.

5) A Christian who is married to a Jewish woman - will be conscripted to the

IDF.

6) A Christian who was married to a Jewish woman and divorced her, or was
widowed, and who -

a. Has children from this marriage and the children are with him - will
be conscripted to the IDF.

b. Has no children as above, or his children from this marriage are not
with him - will be conscripted to the IDF only if his father is a Jew.

7) A Jew who converted to Christianity - will be conscripted to the IDF.

8) Compulsory conscription will not be imposed on other sorts of Christians,

except such as have volunteered to be enlisted and their applications are
accepted.

(Quoted from 'Hamishpat', an Israeli law periodical issued by the School of
Law, Academic Track, The College of Administration, Issue 19, March 2005)
I was sent this in an email once upon a time and by googling one little piece of it, all I could find was this site. It looks like a university message board to me. So, now I'm looking for reliable information on conscription and volunteering to and barring from the Israeli army. Any takers?

Thanks

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