IDF to rank soldiers' service
Military launches project 'honorable discharge' to fight draft-dodgers; plans to award soldiers color-coded cards indicating nature of service. 'The main idea is that IDF service is one's ticket into Israeli society,' says head of personnel bureau
The IDF announced Tuesday it was launching its new "Honorable Discharge" project, aimed at fighting the draft-dodging phenomenon.
According to the project's guidelines, soldiers will be awarded – upon completion of their service – a card indicating they have served their country.
The "Honorable Discharge" project will offer soldiers three color-coded cards: A golden-colored card – indicating service in the combat forces; a silver-colored card – indicating service in a field unit; and a bronze-colored card, indicating the completion of generic IDF service.
The silver-colored card (Photo: IDF's Spokesperson's Unit)
Each card will carry the headline "honorably discharged from military service", and will detail the soldier's name, ID and dog-tag numbers, date of birth, rank and reserve duty statues.
Should soldiers be awarded special commendations during their service, or undergo special professional training, a star specifying the nature of the commendation or training will be added to their card. Each card will grant its owner certain benefits, to be determined at a later date.
According to Colonel Ziki Sela, head of the IDF's personnel planning bureau, the project is meant to be used as an incentive, both to teens – to join the IDF, and to soldiers already in service – to complete their service as well as to strive for excellence.
IDF data indicate that about 7,000 teens dodge the mandatory draft every year. Between 1991 and 2007 the percentage of men dodging the draft has risen from 18.2% in '91 to 27.7% in 2007. The trend has affected women as well: While 32.8% of them dodged the draft in '91, 43.7% of them did so in 2007.
The project's main goal, said Colonel Sela, is to "give society information regarding the nature of an individual's military service… the idea being that the service is one's ticket into Israeli society."
The project's pilot program will be launched on January 20th. Should everything go according to plan, project "Honorable Discharge" will be given a go by the end of March.
