Israel’s Parliament defeated today by a vote of 33 to 29 a Herut proposal to reduce the term of compulsory military service for women from two years to one.
The vote followed a statement against the proposal made by Shimon Peres, Deputy Defense Minister, who told the Knesset that 75 percent of the women in service had completed their high school education and were thus able to release for active service men of parallel education serving in technical units.
He said that more than 500 of the women ranked sergeant or higher and that many hundreds were serving in Nahal–a special armed forces unit in which troops perform agricultural duties in border settlements while receiving military training. He also reported that 400 of the women served as teachers in the armed forces, and that thousands of others performed essential duties which otherwise would have required trained personnel who would be a heavy burden on the Israel Treasury.
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