Meitav (military Unit)

Meitav (military Unit)

Meitav (Hebrew: מיטב) is a military unit created in May 2006 by merging the Bakum (בסיס קליטה ומיון, Bsis Klita UMiyun lit. Reception and Sorting Base) and the Minhag (מנהל הגיוס, Minhal HaGiyus, lit. Recruitment Administration). In practice, it is a military base where new Israel Defense Forces recruits are sorted in to their respective corps or basic training bases, similar to USMEPCOM in the U.S. military. Other responsibilities include (but are not limited to) initial allocation of basic gear and discharging soldiers at the end of their service.

Meitav is still commonly referred to as the Bakum and its new name is virtually unknown outside the army. A possible reason for this is that meitav is the name of the military unit that resides on the base and is responsible for the different sorting tasks, but not the name of its location.

The Bakum is located at the Tel HaShomer military base, and its current commander is Colonel Gadi Agmon.

In 2010, Meitav was the third-largest IDF unit, with 1,026 soldiers.