IDF Personnel Director: 'I hope to see secular soldiers with haredi ones in the same tank'

The Head of the Manpower Directorate (J1), MG Yaniv Asor, attended an annual pre-enlistment event for candidates for IDF service on Wednesday and discussed haredi conscription.

“Military service is a journey where you will discover incredible strengths within yourself that you never knew existed. Among other things, your service will allow you to meet and get to know friends from all walks of Israeli society," Asor told the future draftees.

"Over the past few months, we have been working, in accordance with the law, to recruit and optimally integrate our haredi brothers into the IDF. IDF service, for the security of our beloved country, is an enormous privilege of the generation of revival, an honor, and not a burden," he proclaimed.

He added: "Just as here in the Meitav tent, you met selection NCOs and officers who do everything to find the right placement that suits the needs of the IDF, and your skills and desires, so we are working to create paths and conditions that allow the haredim to serve and integrate into the army. I hope that next year, we will see everyone serving together in every unit. In a tank operating in the alleys of Gaza, soldiers from Tel Aviv, a kibbutz in the south, a village in the Galilee, and a haredi soldier from Jerusalem will be serving together. This will also be the case at the Intelligence desks, in the Israeli Air Force and Navy, in the combat support units, and in the General Staff.”