Mechina Rabin

The Mechina Rabin ( Hebrew מכינה רבין; full name:המכינה הקדם-צבאית להכשרת מנהיגות חברתית ע"ש יצחק רבין HaMekhina HaKdam-Tzva'it LeHakhsharat Manhigut Hevratit Al Shem Yitzhak Rabin ; for example: “The army preparation program for training social leadership, named after Yitzhak Rabin ”) is a ten-month secular mechina for school leavers in Israel . The academy, founded in 1998, is located at Oranim College in Kirjat Tiw'on , a village in Western Galilee .

Participation in the Mechina Rabin requires an obligation to serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF); a refusal would lead to expulsion from the academy. The participants can claim a post-school "year of service" ( sh'nat sherut ) for the duration of the program and will not be drafted into military service during this time; Only after completing the program do graduates begin their service in the army.

The lesson

The focus of the curriculum is Israel's social policy , its history (especially the history of the Jewish settlement before the state was founded), Judaic studies , humanistic - ideological aspects of current events and personal development. The program does not include weapons training or paramilitary training.

Lessons also include regular volunteer work in the local government schools, in Jokne'am , Migdal haEmek and Nazaret , an area characterized by unemployment and lack of resources. The Mechina participants work as assistants to the teachers and tutors and organize extracurricular activities. Graduates of the academy are increasingly returning to the villages after completing their military service and working there in education.

In addition to these external assignments, the participants in Mechina Rabin are largely responsible for the organization and implementation of the operation. Working groups determine the menu and buy food, invite guest lecturers and find temporary jobs in agriculture or in the education sector: the participants pay 15% of the program costs themselves through casual work accompanying the program. Furthermore, you do not have to pay any tuition or other fees.

Mechina Rabin publishes a newsletter for its graduates and maintains an official website (in Hebrew) with a discussion forum and a calendar of events. During the year there are graduate meetings on Fridays and on weekends, either for a specific year or for all together. These regular meetings deal with current events and issues related to the contents of the Mechina program, as well as the development of new educational and community projects for graduates who have returned to civilian life.

Faculty and equipment

Classes at Mechina Rabin are held by a small permanent college, the majority of which are members of the program. There are also external teachers and weekly guest lecturers, and excursions take place. The teaching material is provided by Hamidrasa . During the course of the program, each participant holds at least one self-prepared lesson unit of one and a half hours. The year ends with a journey of several weeks through the whole country from south to north, on which the most diverse population groups and locations are visited. The students spend several days in a religious mechina or yeshiva .

Converted caravans are available as bedrooms on the Oranim campus. There is a dining room and communal kitchen where participants take turns preparing meals for the group, and a single building with showers and toilets. Oranim also provides the classrooms as well as its library and cafeteria. In the academic year 2006/2007, Mechina Rabin had its highest number of participants to date with 70 school leavers.

Testimony from graduates of Mechina Rabin after Operation Cast Lead

On February 13, 2009, less than a month after the conclusion of Operation Cast Lead , graduates of Mechina Rabin who had taken part in the event gathered to share their experiences. This included reports of the killing of Palestinian civilians and the willful destruction of property by IDF soldiers under so-called "loose combat rules". The nature of these reports prompted Danny Zamir, the founder and head of Mechina Rabin, who is also a deputy battalion commander of the reserve , to contact the IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi . Its office requested and received a transcript of the reports. Zamir later raised his concern in a meeting with Brigadier General Eli Shermeister, head of the IDF's Education and Youth Corps . A report on the soldiers' meeting was published in the Mechina newsletter. The Israeli public learned about this through articles in the daily Haaretz on March 19-20. The events became known worldwide on March 20 through the lead in the International Herald Tribune . The IDF have announced an investigation.

Web links

About the reports of the Mechina graduates from their Gaza deployment:

• Transcription of the reports of the Mechina graduates on their Gaza deployment (on February 13, 2009 at the Mechinat Rabin)
• Haaretz reveals Cast Lead soldiers' testimony
• Amos Harel: Stories you'd rather not hear . Haaretz
• Ethics probe necessary but difficult to carry out . Haaretz

Individual evidence

1. ^ Website of Mechina Rabin and information leaflets for those interested, website of the Ministry of Education with a description of all army preparation programs.
2. ^ IDF killed civilians in Gaza under loose rules of engagement . Haaretz, English edition, March 19, 2009; Lead
   IDF killed civilians in Gaza under loose rules of engagement . ( Memento of the original from February 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. online March 20, 2009; Retrieved March 22, 2009 
3. ↑ Grim testimony on Israeli assault: Soldiers report killing of unarmed civilians in Gaza . In: International Herald Tribune , March 20, 2009
   online on March 19: Soldiers' accounts of Gaza killings raise furor in Israel. (accessed on March 22, 2009)
4. ↑ Amos Harel: in Haaretz (March 20, 2009). IDF orders probe into allegations over Gaza was. ( Memento of the original from March 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: (accessed on March 22, 2009)