The basis of the incitement has been exposed. A study published by the Israel Democracy Institute generated false headlines claiming "₪1,700 per household."
Even when Globes was forced to admit its error, it again relied on the Institute's calculations and refused to drill down to the real figure.
A professional analysis reveals the relevant cost stands at just ₪72, less than half of what was presented in the correction, and one-tenth of what was marketed to the public.
The data fabrication against the haredi public was no accident. Behind the latest incitement campaign, claiming every working family pays seventeen hundred shekels per month, stands (once again) the Israel Democracy Institute's data operation. Though the claim was debunked and Globes' fact-checking column "HaMasrukit" admitted the error, the distorted figure still hasn't been properly corrected. The reason is simple.
The column did apologize, but returned to relying on the same biased methodology from the Institute. Instead of exposing the true sum of approximately ₪72, it stopped at ₪144 and left the manipulation hanging in the air.
It all began with an Israel Democracy Institute study that threw into the air an inflated estimate of approximately ₪14.9 billion for what they termed subsidizing haredi society in security.
In practice, Institute researchers built a theoretical calculation, most of which has no connection to the direct cost of haredi men not serving, but wrapped it in academic packaging that prepared the ground for a blatant political campaign.
Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid jumped on the invention and claimed on air that every working family pays ₪1,700 every month for the draft evasion. Globes then checked the claim, found it matched the Institute's numbers, and gave it a "true" rating that ignited public discourse.
Only after a sharp appeal by MK Yitzhak Pindrus were the HaMasrukit fact-checkers forced to admit the error, changed the rating to "false," and cut the sum to ₪144.
But instead of examining the data in depth, Globes went straight back to the Democracy Institute's calculations. They relied on an internal component from the study standing at ₪3.8 billion, from which they derived the ₪144 per household figure.
A methodological analysis document obtained by Kikar HaShabbat shows that of those ₪3.8 billion, only approximately ₪1.9 billion is attributed to non-service by haredi men. All the rest of the sum includes haredi women who are exempt from service by law exactly like every religious young woman, alongside additional components apparently artificially attached to the account.
When clearing the table and diving into the dry data, isolating only the figure relevant to men,one arrives at approximately ₪72 per month.
This is half the number HaMasrukit insisted on presenting in its correction, and a fraction of those ₪1,700 that Lapid and the Institute spread.
The haredi public is furious and clarifies that the figure was never fully corrected. The Institute supplied the raw material for incitement, the media correction stopped halfway, and the public and consciousness damage surrounding the imaginary ₪1,700 figure cannot be erased.
