Mechinat Rabin (full name: המכינה הקדם-צבאית להכשרת מנהיגות חברתית ע"ש יצחק רבין; HaMekhina HaKdam-Tzva'it LeHakhsharat Manhigut Hevratit Al Shem Yitzhak Rabin—The Pre-army Preparatory Program for Training Social Leadership, named for Yitzhak Rabin) is a secular mechinah for high-school graduates in Israel, located at the Oranim College in the Western Galilee. Founded in 1998, the program features intensive studies in a range of subjects focusing on the sociopolitics and history of Israel, Jewish studies, and humanistic-ideological aspects of current events, as well as personal development. The studies are combined with volunteer service in the public school system of outlying communities. The 10-month residential program defers compulsory military service in the framework of the post-secondary "year of service" (sh'nat sherut), after which its graduates are inducted into the IDF.

From its inception, Mechinat Rabin has been sponsored by the Oranim Academic College, Oranim's HaMidrasha Educational Center for the Renewal of Jewish Life in Israel, the United Kibbutz Movement, and the Yitzhak Rabin Center. It operates under the auspices of both the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Defense. Other supporting institutions include the Avi Chai Foundation, the Jewish Federation of New York, and the Jewish Agency.

Besides their volunteer placements, the enrollees themselves work at temporary jobs in agriculture and education during their mechinah year to cover 15% of the program's expenses, and no tuition or other fees are charged. The dormitory facilities on the Oranim campus are converted caravans, a communal kitchen and dining hall where participants take turns preparing breakfast and supper for the group, and a single building with showers and lavatories. In the 2006/7 academic year, Mechinat Rabin had its peak enrollment of 70 recent high-school graduates.

For their compulsory military service, the majority of Mechinat Rabin graduates enter one of two focal tracks: positions of command in the Education and Youth Corps or in the Givati Brigade. Some are accepted into other units, including the elite commandos, or are part of a Nahal group. Members of the Mechinat Rabin educational staff, themselves IDF reservists and most with officers' rank, make periodic visits to groups of graduates at their bases and also are available for personal consultation on an ad hoc basis.

Mechinat Rabin publishes a newsletter, Briza ("Breeze") for its graduates, and maintains an official website (in Hebrew) with a discussion forum and activities updates. Throughout the year, Mechinat Rabin hosts Friday and weekend gatherings of graduates, by year or all together (2008/9 being the 11th year). These gatherings focus on current events and topics related to the mechinah's program content, as well as for developing new and ongoing educational and community projects for the graduates who've returned to civilian life.

During their mechinah year, participants have regular assignments as volunteer classroom aides in the towns of Yoqneam, Migdal Haemek, Akko, and Nazareth Illit. A growing phenomenon is the return of groups of graduates after their discharge from the IDF, to live in these towns and work in the field of education there.

On February 13, 2009, a month after Operation Cast Lead, graduates of Mechinat Rabin who had taken part in that Gaza operation gathered for a discussion of their experiences. These testimonies included accounts of IDF soldiers killing Palestinian civilians and intentionally destroying property ^[1] under what have been described as "permissive rules of engagement". The nature of the accounts prompted Danny Zamir, the founder and director of Mechinat Rabin as well as being a deputy battalion commander in the reserves, to approach IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi . The latter's bureau requested and received a transcript of the accounts. Zamir subsequently aired his concerns in a meeting with the IDF Chief Education Officer, Brig. Gen. Eli Shermeister. Notes of the soldiers' discussion were published in the mechina's newsletter and came to the general public's attention with articles in the mainstream daily Haaretz on March 19 and 20, and broke globally on March 20 with the lead article in the International Herald Tribune print edition^[2] and on the Israeli reaction in its electronic edition (see Further reading, below). The IDF has announced plans to conduct investigations.^[3]

• Haaretz reveals Cast Lead soldiers' testimony
• "Stories you'd rather not hear" - Amos Harel, Haaretz
• "Ethics probe necessary but difficult to carry out" - Haaretz
• "Soldiers' accounts of Gaza killings raise furor in Israel" - International Herald Tribune
• Extensive excerpts from the soldiers' testimony transcript - Haaretz

• IDF Code of Conduct