A bill erasing the juvenile records of combat soldiers in the IDF passed a preliminary reading in a Knesset cabinet meeting Wednesday.
The bill would effectively allow troubled youths who had a clean record in the IDF to continue as armed security personnel in the civilian sector, according to MK Orly Levy-Abekasis (Likud/Yisrael Beytenu), who wrote the bill. The move would provide the soldiers with a fresh start, enabling them to reintegrate more smoothly into general society.
Security jobs - which often allow flexible shifts for students - are a very popular option for former combat soldiers, and in relatively high demand in Israel, which is always under threat from its Muslim neighbors. As such, the move would also solve another problem: finding work.
Nonetheless, according to Mako, a poll earlier this year conducted by Panels indicated that over 60% of combat veterans ages 21-26 report difficulty finding employment. That article claims that the real culprit is a lack of skills from combat soldiers, who often find that the ability to wield a gun or run a kilometer in record time does not translate adequately to the working world.
In the preliminary reading, 42 MKs voted for the bill, with only 1 against. The bill will be passed to the Committee for Interior Affairs and Environmental Protection to be prepared and revised for the first reading.