Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

May 25, 2023

The Cognitively Disabled Soldiers Who Handle an Elite IDF Unit’s Most Sensitive Materials

“My dad is a lieutenant colonel, and I wanted to follow him to the army and volunteer.”

In the U.S., people have been excluded from military service for such minor physical defects as flat feet. Israel, by contrast, has long taken the attitude that every citizen has something to contribute to the people’s army. Most recently, a group of young men and women who suffer from such conditions as autism and deaf-mutism have been assigned to the prestigious and secretive 8200 Unit, responsible for cyberwarfare, where they help to destroy and dispose of computer hardware containing classified information. Lior Ohana speaks with some of the team’s members:

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