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Absorption of Discharged Soldiers Law

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aliasesAbsorption of Discharged Soldiers Law — Benefits for Discharged Soldiers, From Uniforms to Studies Law

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Summary

The law governing benefits for discharged soldiers in higher education — Article 7a benefits for study in National Priority Areas and the Article 7a(1) support expanded by Amendment No. 24 in 2022 — which Adalah’s Discriminatory Laws Database presents as using military service as a proxy that excludes most Palestinian citizens of Israel from state benefits (Discriminatory Laws Database, lines 309-393).

Details

  • Article 7a (Amendment No. 12, 26 June 2010): a fund for encouraging higher education studies in National Priority Areas — primarily in the Naqab (Negev) and the Galilee, and Jewish-Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank — financing tuition for eligible discharged soldiers studying there, up to 9,521 NIS in the first year, and preparatory courses; ministerial regulations specify a total annual allocation of 20 million NIS (lines 322, 330-338).
  • Article 7a(1), expanded by Amendment No. 24 on 23 May 2022 and known as the “From Uniforms to Studies Law”: defined categories of discharged soldiers (combatants who served at least 85% of the required period and at least 75% of it as a combatant, or 70% on special circumstances, and other defined categories including lone soldiers and new immigrants) receive support equal to three-quarters of the annual tuition fee (lines 324, 340-356).
  • Adalah’s account is that the vast majority of Palestinian citizens are exempt from military service and thus excluded, that the military-service criterion also conditions benefits in employment, land, housing loans and mortgage credit, and that, in the entry’s words, the 2022 law turns universities into an apartheid space where Palestinian students pay full tuition. Palestinian citizens are given as about 20% of the population; the National Insurance Institute’s 2020 Poverty and Social Gaps Report figures quoted are 56.6% of Palestinian families in Israel in poverty against 37.5% of Jewish families (lines 326, 358-364).
  • International criticism quoted in the entry: Amnesty International’s apartheid report, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination’s 2012 concluding observations, and the US Department of State’s 2013 report (lines 368-374).

Discriminatory Laws Database, Adalah, Naqab, Galilee, West Bank, Apartheid

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