Israel is tightening criteria for military draftees who want exemptions on psychiatric grounds. Military sources said Thursday that starting next month, conscripts who ask for a mental-health evaluation will have to face a panel of officers and experts rather than a lone psychiatrist, as has been the case for years. Candidates found to be faking mental illness in a bid to shirk mandatory military service will be given dishonorable discharges and deemed ineligible for various state benefits. The move follows concern that as a many as 50 percent of conscripts who receive psychiatric discharges do so without reasonable grounds. Israel’s draft boards previously had erred on the side of caution, given findings that some soldier suicides might have been prevented if symptoms had been spotted in time. Following the tactical setbacks of last year’s Lebanon War, there has been a toughening of standards throughout Israel’s armed forces.
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