IDF posts, deletes AI video telling Haredi draft dodgers how to evade ban on traveling abroad
Shortly before an annual pilgrimage of religious Jewish men to the Ukrainian city of Uman for Rosh Hashanah, the Israeli military published a video Wednesday explaining to Haredi draft dodgers how to evade being denied permission to leave the country.
The artificially generated video was posted to the official Instagram account of the Personnel Directorate’s Haredi branch, before being removed following media reports.
In the video, a visibly Orthodox AI soldier, named “Dudi the explainer,” said that Haredi men who have not completed their recruitment process — before being officially declared a draft evader — would be stopped at Ben Gurion Airport and not allowed to leave the country.
“This story also has another ending: a brief appearance at the recruitment office with the medical documents — and this order is behind you. Don’t get stuck at the gate,” the AI soldier said.
The Instagram post’s caption told Haredi draft dodgers that they could “continue as usual” after showing up to the recruitment office.
In response, the military said that they then removed the video as it “does not reflect the IDF’s activity regarding the process of regularizing [recruitment] status.”
“At the same time, the original purpose of the video was to explain to relevant prospective recruits the process of regularizing their status, whose purpose is recruitment and service in the IDF, and at the........
