Israel military chiefs have called for model Bar Refaeli to be banned from a new campaign promoting the country because she did not complete her military service.
The Israel Defense Forces has written a letter to the country’s Foreign Ministry opposing her appointment in the new advertising campaign.
The model did not complete military service after she married in 2007. She divorced soon afterwards.
It is compulsory for women to do two years of service in the armed forces unless they have specific exemptions including being married or pregnant.
Men have to complete three years of service from the age of 18. Refaeli has been chosen to feature in a series of adverts promoting technology and innovation in Israel.
The Times of Israel reported that IDF Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai wrote to the Foreign Ministry to urge then to reconsider their choice.
He said that it sets the wrong example to young Israeli’s. He asked them to consider ‘the negative message’ being sent out by using the model as the country’s ‘representative’.
Brig Gen. Mordechai was quoted in the Times of Israel as writing: ‘In recent years, the IDF has been trying a variety of methods to improve the value of military service and to combat draft evasion, in order to preserve the moral dimension whereby the IDF if the people’s army.’
But Refaeli was bullish in her response to the criticism in her homeland. She wrote on her Twitter account in Hebrew: ‘Foreign Office use the video or not but my Instagram has more readers than the Yedioth Ahronoth (Israel’s most popular newspaper)!’ The Foreign Ministry also defended their decision.
In a statement quoted by the Times of Israel, a spokesman said: ‘Refaeli is considered one of the most beautiful women in the world and is widely recognised as an Israeli’.
In 2010, the Israeli army reportedly launched a campaign against the swimsuit model and called for a boycott on the products she promotes.
Armed forces human resources director Avi Zamir told students in Tel Aviv: ‘At the end of the day, she is the one who has to look at herself in the mirror.
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