Month: May 2017 – ט׳ באייר תשע״ז

True or False?

Kibbutzniks comprised a full quarter of the casualties during the Six-Day War, in spite of being only 4% of the soldiers.

UPDATE – Claude claims:

I retrieved the actual IDF historical research document on Six-Day War casualties. It breaks down the 781 fallen soldiers by front, brigade, date, rank, age, marital status, and type of service. Crucially, it does break down casualties by place of residence — city, development town, and “התיישבות העובדת” (the labour settlements, i.e., kibbutzim and moshavim).

The document notes that over 25% of fallen soldiers came from the התיישבות העובדת. But — and this is important — that category includes both kibbutzim and moshavim, not kibbutzim alone. And the document also explicitly cautions that many soldiers from kibbutzim (as well as moshavim, presumably) registered city addresses (military or family), so the figure likely understates their representation.

So the 25% figure appears to have a real basis in IDF data for the Six-Day War specifically — but it refers to the broader labour settlement sector, not kibbutzim alone, and the document itself flags the methodological caveat.

It’s also worth noting that kibbutzniks were historically overrepresented in combat roles and officer ranks, which would naturally affect casualty rates; IDF’s culture was the famous “אחרי” (“follow me”) doctrine, where officers led from the front.

Nothing specific to kibbutz casualty percentages in 1948.