Brigadier-General Avi Zamir
Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Office
IDF: Increase in indictments filed against draft-dodgers
Cooperation between IDF, police resulting in more arrests of draft-dodgers, senior officer says, adding that military courts handing down harsher sentences to deter youngsters who are considering evading army service
Since July 2007 some 370 indictments have been filed against Israeli youngsters who have evaded military service, as opposed to only a few dozen indictments filed a year earlier.
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According to Lieutenant-Colonel Morris Hirsch, special military advocate for absentees and deserters, the hike is due mainly to increased cooperation between the IDF and Israel Police.
A year ago Ynet revealed a plan initiated by Brigadier-General Avi Zamir, who was recently appointed chief of IDF personnel, aimed at apprehending as many draft-dodgers as possible by disclosing to Israel Police information on deserters and youngsters who have evaded army service for over a year in the hope that any routine driver's license check would lead to their arrest.
Now it appears that the plan is bearing fruit. "There is a significant rise in the number of draft-dodgers who are being arrested and in the number of indictments filed against them," Hirsch said, "a draft-dodger who is apprehended by police is immediately transferred to IDF custody."
The senior army officer said the military courts are handing down harsher sentences to deter draft-dodgers. Last week a military judge sentenced a 25-year-old draft-dodger to nine months in prison, the maximum penalty allowed for such an offense.
The Military Advocate General's Office is currently establishing a body that will deal with draft-dodgers so that, according to Hirsch, "we will be able to put them on trial in a speedy and effective manner".
