Fighting desertion
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IDF, police to fight desertion
IDF reveals 3,500 soldiers fail to report for duty every year. Military, civil police to share database in effort to apprehend deserters
The IDF is stepping up its fight against deserters: the military authorities announced Wednesday they intend to hand over the names of those who fail to report to the military induction center to the civil police.
The data will be automatically updated in police computers every three hours, making every routine paper inspection, such as those performed by the highway police, possible grounds for arrest – should the papers belong to a deserter.
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Once the military and civil police create a shared database, any deserter arrested by the civil police will be automatically handed over to the military police for further processing.
Alarming numbers
In a conference held recently by the military police, the military prosecutor's office and the draft and induction administration, headed by Colonel Amir Rogovsky, the IDF revealed that every year some 3,500 soldiers fail to report to the military induction center on their intended date.According to the Israeli Security Act of 1986 "those who have been through all pre-drafting stages but fail to arrive at the induction center on the day of their draft are considered soldiers absent without leave, giving the military judicial authority in their case," a military source told Ynet.
IDF data further revealed that about 25% of teens of draft age are able to get an exemption from service for various reasons, such as religious beliefs, medical difficulties, mental incompatibility or marriage.
Over the past decade the IDF has not been able to locate about 4,000 deserters, and at least half of them are believed to be living abroad.
In the last few weeks, after the civilian and military police began coordinating their efforts, dozens of deserters have been arrested and turned over to military courts.
Furthermore, the military police's authority – limited so far to post-draft soldiers absent without leave – was extended, giving it permission to arrest those named as deserters even if they are not full-fledged soldiers.
Lacking information
The IDF's plan, however, is far from providing an answer to the desertion problem. The military prosecutor's office admits that the IDF lacks crucial information on deserters who have not been fully inducted, sometimes not even having a recent photo of the person they are looking for.
"Over the last few months we have had dozens of hearings for pre-draft deserters and in many cases we have no choice but to let them go, because the military authorities didn't do their homework," a source in the military defense council's office told Ynet.
"The IDF has preformed a comprehensive study of the desertion phenomenon in an effort to improve its handling of those who fail to report for duty," a statement given by the IDF spokesman said.
"As part of the study's conclusions it was decided to tighten the link between the civil and military police forces and share IDF data in a way which will allow any policeman who encounters a deserter to detain that person and to hand them over to the proper military authorities," said the statement.
