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Photo: Tsafrir Abayov
Minister Katz. Bill rejected
Photo: Tsafrir Abayov

Ministers against revoking draft dodgers' driving license

Cabinet discusses alarming IDF data on growing draft dodging trend. Transportation minister proposes bill which would revoke licenses of those seeking exemptions on mental health grounds, but ministerial committee rejects it. PM suggests recruiting more non-Jews

How does one solve the draft-dodging problem? Cabinet ministers discussed the issue Sunday and some interesting proposals were raised. Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz promoted his bill according to which draft-dodgers should be denied of driving licenses. However, the proposal was rejected by the Ministerial Committee on Legislative Affairs.  

 

"There is a bill we must support, and impose significant sanctions on people being dismissed by the mental health officer," Katz said.

  

It was decided that Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser would chair a ministerial committee responsible of drafting recommendations for a bill addressing the problem of alleged religious female draft-dodgers. Hauser is to present the recommendations before the government next week.

 

During the debate the IDF Human Resources Directorate presented data which suggested that over 20% of boys and some 40% of girls don't enlist in the army. Some 30% of the girls who didn't enlist did so out of alleged religious grounds, whereas the rest received exemption due to marriage, health problems, mental incompatibility and other reasons.

 

Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer commented, "Its seems most of the draft-dodgers come from central Israel and not from the periphery."

 

Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar said there was a whole "industry of false claims in female enlistment. We do not condemn religious girls, but the girls who seek exemptions and leading an un-religious life style."

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also offered his thoughts on the matter and stated there was also draft-dodging on the basis of the mental health clause. "Recruiting the girls into the IDF is one way of dealing with the matter, but eligible boys exempting themselves using illicit ways are no smaller a loss to the IDF in terms of the combat forces." The prime minister also urged recruitment among minorities.

 

Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch followed Netanyahu's thoughts and said that preferential treatment should be given to minority groups' members, mainly among the Druze and Bedouins, but also among the ultra-Orthodox sector.

 

'Half the nation's army'

National Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau said that the IDF has turned into "half the nation's army" while Intelligence and Atomic Energy Minister Dan Meridor noted the alarming nature of the data and said, "I do not believe there is such a large amount of draft-dodgers in the Israeli population."

 

Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman jokingly remarked on mental health dodgers, "If 25% in Israel are crazy then we should look into what's going on across this table," and prompted great laughter. On a more serious note, he added, "There are not only haredi draft-dodgers, there are also secular dodgers, in addition to various dancers and actors."

 

During the debate, Interior Minister Eli Yishai and Housing and Construction Minister Ariel Atias said they did not defend the draft-dodgers but stated that those whom "Torah is their profession" should be exempt, referring to ultra-Orthodox men studying Judaism all their life and not working.

 

Aviad Glickman contributed to this report

 


פרסום ראשון: 11.29.09, 17:52
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