Bnei David Mechina
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Bnei David Mechina (Hebrew: מכינה קדם-צבאית בני דוד, lit. 'Pre-Military Academy of the Sons of David'), also known as the Eli Mechina, is the first pre-military yeshiva academy or mechina founded by Israel. Established in 1988 by rabbis Eli Sadan and Yigal Levinstein, the institution is located in Eli, an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, Palestine.[1][2]
The academy's stated goal is to prepare religious Zionist young men for full and significant service in the IDF,[3] particularly in combat units and officer roles. Bnei David has had a significant impact on the IDF, producing a high number of high-ranking officers and combat soldiers,[4] while also generating public controversy for the views of its leadership about LGBT people, women, and secular Israelis.[5][6][7]
Bnei David was founded in 1988 in the Israeli settlement of Eli. At the time of its founding, the training model for religious soldiers was the Hesder program, which combined abbreviated military service with yeshiva study. Founding rabbis Eli Sadan and Yigal Levinstein proposed a new model that would encourage religious soldiers to commit to a full, three-year (or longer) military service, aiming to produce a generation of religious officers who could influence and rise up to the IDF's high command.[8][9]
Location and legal status
The academy is located in Eli, an Israeli settlement in central West Bank, north of Ramallah in Palestine. The mechina receives government funding from the Ministry of Education and, as a pre-army academy, is overseen by the Ministry of Defense.[5][7]
Eli was established in 1984 on land Israel expropriated from the Palestinian villages of As-Sawiya[10] and Qaryut.[11]
The ICJ and the international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, as they violate the Fourth Geneva Convention's prohibition on an occupying power transferring its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.[12][13]
Impact of the IDF
Bnei David has been widely noted for its success in achieving its primary goal of producing graduates who move into key positions within the Israeli military. While religious Zionists made up only 2.5% of IDF graduate officer cadets of the infantry in 1990, that number had risen to over 40% by 2024, an increase attributed to the establishment of Bnei David and the mechina movement it founded.[2][14]
In 2012 alumni of the alumni were 4% of infantry recruits, but a disproportionate 25% of the graduates of the officers' track.[4]
Around half of alumni are officers.[6]