Army enlists universities to combat draft dodging

The Israeli Defence Force’s Human Resources Directorate chief, Major General Orna Barbivai, has sent a sharply worded letter to the Council for Higher Education revealing the large amounts of money inadvertently invested in funding draft dodgers' education, writes Telem Yahav for YNet News.

The term is used to reference those considered missing or deserters who have failed to secure an exemption for defence force service. According to data, some 1,500 youths have either defected or just not shown up for military service in the past five years. These numbers do not include those who received exemption due to either physical or mental illness, but rather those who chose to ignore their draft orders.

Like all undergraduate students in Israel's public universities and colleges, draft evaders enjoy a partial state subsidiary of their tuition, funded (in this case unknowingly) by the Israeli taxpayer.

"We were surprised to find out that there were (service) evaders learning in institutions of higher education while they're on the run from the army and law enforcement officials," Barbivai wrote.
Full report on the YNet News site