The Israel Broadcasting Authority announced this week it would not hold a contest to decide who should represent Israel in the Eurovision song contest, so as not to give contenders who did not serve in the army with chance to win.
Instead, the IBA named the young Star is Born (Israel's version of American Idol) winner Boaz Mauda as Israel's representative in the European contest.
Boaz Mauda (Photo: Orly Dayan)
"I will not let those who shirked their military service represent us," said IBA Director-General Mordechai Shklar. "That's like asking me to applaud someone who uses a legal loophole to evade taxes. I also vehmently oppose the ultra-Orthodox community which uses the law to evade service."
According to Shklar, people who were exempted from service due to health problems were no better than draft-dodgers. "Those who come to the doctor with all sorts of slips of paper and get out under medical pretenses are also dodgers in my eyes," he said.
According to Shklar, draft-dodging "is a call for anarchy that says that the law is a selective thing and that if I don't like it, I don't have to obey it.
"This stems from the social-cultural notion in Israel that sanctifies the individual… Today, everybody does what they feel like and only care about their own interests."
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