A Ynet investigative report published on Sunday revealed that almost a third of IDF candidates receive exemptions every year from serving in the army. The high number of exemptions is mainly due to a dramatic rise in exemptions for mental health reasons. The report added that apart from the rising number of exemptions, an average of another 15% of recruits drop out during their service, which means that close to half of all young Israelis are not serving or completing army service. IDF exemptions for mental health reasons have been rising dramatically for years, from 4.5% five years ago to an expected 8.3% in 2020, which means that thousands of potential IDF soldiers, most of whom don’t actually have mental health issues, are not drafted into the IDF. Senior officials in the IDF Manpower Directorate believe that the phenomenon is not a result of a “sudden rise” in mental health issues but is essentially a result of decreased motivation to serve in the IDF. Another factor contributing to the high percentage of mental health exemptions is the fact that a criminal investigation is opened into every case of an IDF soldier committing suicide, including an investigation of the mental health officer who approved the soldier for service. Due to the fear of being implicated in these criminal investigations, many mental health officers tend to be very lenient in approving mental health exemptions. A little less than two weeks ago, Major-General Moti Almoz, head of the IDF Manpower Directorate, sent a letter to all mental health officers in the recruiting office entitled “Steps to Halt the Rise in Mental Health Exemptions.” Almoz also held an urgent meeting last week to discuss ways to decrease mental health exemptions. One step he took was to promise the mental health officers to back their decisions on refusing mental health exemptions to those who didn’t clearly need it. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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