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Israeli army recruits thousands of soldiers with criminal records
Thousands of Israel Defense Forces soldiers have criminal records, but only a few dozen of them seek to have their records expunged by a military council. According to the IDF, 3.8 percent of male recruits last year had criminal records or committed crimes before their military service, while only 0.3 percent of female recruits had records.
Most of the offenses range from drug offenses and theft to violent crimes. However, there are also cases in which the army takes recruits convicted of more serious crimes, including sex offenses.
The latter was revealed during the investigation of a recent sexual assault case at Hatzerim, an Israel Air Force base. It came to light that the soldier accused of raping two female soldiers was not discharged from the army, despite having a criminal history that included sex offenses.
The IDF maintains that it only recruits soldiers with criminal records after they have gone through rehabilitation. In the army’s view, military service is a second opportunity for troubled youths, many of whom are able to complete their full military service, sometimes in combat units.
Neverheless, the number of recruits with criminal records is climbing.
A soldier with a criminal record is able to file a request for an official recommendation to the president that his record be expunged. Such requests are usually granted if a soldier has not been convicted in a military court, has not had more than six disciplinary infractions and has not gone AWOL for a period of two weeks or more.
In most cases, the soldier in question comes before a council and must convince them to issue a recommendation to the president on his or her behalf.
According to IDF data, recommendations to expunge criminal records usually lead to pardons from the president upon release from service. There has not been a case over the past four years in which such a recommendation from the army failed to get a soldier’s record expunged.
At the same time, the number of soldiers filing such requests is at an all-time low; 39 requests were filed in 2014, with only 10 each in 2013 and 2012. The IDF is considering notifying all soldiers of the possibility of filing such a request during their basic traning.
“It’s important to catch the soldiers in basic training, before they go AWOL, because there are clear criteria for receiving such a recommendation,” explained an officer in the office of the IDF’s Military Advocate General. “A soldier who manages to get back on the right track, in the army, of all places, usually receives a pardon from the president.
“Those soldiers give good service to the state and then go off on a difficult journey with a criminal record – and we can help them erase it. At that age, not all of them understand what it means to have a criminal record, they only figure it out later when looking for work.”
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