The Israel Defense Forces is promoting a legislation that will deprive soldiers who served for less than 12 months in the army of certain rights and benefits awarded to discharged troops, Ynet learned Sunday.
Exempt from the new guidelines will be soldiers who can prove that they were officially released from duty due to a medical problem arising from combat service.
The initiative aims to save the IDF millions in release grants given to soldiers discharged early from service, and enable it to allot the excess funds to troops who see their full service through.
In addition, soldiers who served for under a year and were not officially discharged due to medical reasons will not be eligible for handicapped IDF veteran status.
However the plan is being opposed in and outside of the IDF, and some are claiming it will harm the army's values. Critics say many soldiers injured while not actively in combat, for example in a work accident, will not be eligible for the benefits they deserve as handicapped veterans.
According to the Defense Ministry, thousands of soldiers are released from duty each year before completing a year of service due to various medical issues. Only in a limited number of cases do the medical issues arise from combat service.
All of those discharged receive a release grant and state benefits including improved mortgage conditions. A simple process declares the troops as discharged soldiers eligible for these rewards, as well as recognition as handicapped veterans.
The handicapped status carries large stipends as well as funding of all medical treatment. All of this costs the Defense Ministry a hefty sum, one that critics say the ministry is trying to avoid by refusing to grant troops the status of 'discharged soldier' needed to receive the status of handicapped veteran.
Veterans who are not eligible for handicapped status will have to rely on national insurance for aid.
'More bureaucracy for soldiers'
Supporters of the plan say it aims to differentiate between troops who do their duty faithfully and those who look to evade service.
"In recent years we have been witnessing a trend in which many soldiers do not see their service through," says an IDF official. "For many of them this happens in a way that raises questions about their reasons."
In the end, he said, "you can't treat those who were injured in combat in the Gaza Strip as you treat someone who drove drunk on vacation and got into an accident."
He said the funds saved by the plan will go towards those soldiers who carry out their service to the end, raising their grant by 1%.
Legal officials who oppose the plan say it will heap bureaucratic difficulties on released soldiers, as they will have to fight to be recognized as 'discharged'.
In addition, critics say, thousands of troops not injured in combat will be abandoned by the IDF. Among these will also be soldiers who find it difficult to prove that a certain medical condition was a result of combat, they say. An example of this are the soldiers who dove in the Kishon River as part of their duty, and years later discovered it had given them cancer.
Legal experts say the plan gives the army's human resources branch too much power. "Aside from the symbolic harming of the IDF as an army of the people, this will cause the annulment of the basic rights of people injured during service," says attorney Eli Saban, an expert in claims against the Defense Ministry.
"These people will not be able to start life anew when the minimal rights offered to them are taken away. The validation of this plan will cause discrimination which in my opinion will not receive the approval of the High Court of Justice."