Hundreds of thousands of youth and children will begin the new school year this week and concurrently thousands of National Service volunteers will begin their service in the various frameworks where they will serve the State of Israel.
National Service has for many years been a solution for those who wish to serve and contribute to the state of Israel and to Israeli society without serving in the army. This could be due to medical or religious reasons and the service will usually take place in an educational or medical institution or in various types of welfare frameworks.
In recent years a new phenomenon has developed with the State of Israel sending volunteers to serve in bodies which receive most of their funding from foreign countries and which are endeavoring both within Israel and outside of it to portray the state as guilty of war crimes. These organizations either defend Israel's enemies in terrorist organizations or criticize IDF soldiers' behavior and present a spurious and inaccurate picture of their activities.
The new proposal being promoted by MK Amir Ohana (Likud) intends to put an end to the situation where organizations critical of Israel are benefiting from government funding through their National Service allocations.
The proposal seeks to ensure that the National Service funded by Israel should not include organizations which may play a part in international pressure on Israel via foreign funding which these organizations may be receiving to this end.
An organization which gets most (more than 50%) of its funding from foreign countries should not be able to receive National Service appointments.
According to MK Amir Ohana, the initiator of this proposal, "Something is rotten in the immunity system of the State of Israel. It is unthinkable that we ourselves should provide subsidized manpower to organizations that work in the interests of foreign governments to portray Israel as a war criminal, as well as defending the biggest terrorists and slandering IDF soldiers who are protecting us day and night.
"I tried to bring a stop to this absurd situation by presenting a query to the Agriculture minister responsible for the National Service but unfortunately we saw no chance in the policies. There is no other option available besides bringing a proposal to change the law," added Ohana.