The aim: war against draft dodgers • The law will not apply to those discharged because of health problems, outstanding high school students, and immigrants who arrived in Israel after age 17.
Yael Branovsky

Following a slew of controversial bills, a new proposal by Yisrael Beitenu seeks to withhold tuition assistance from students seeking to attend university when they should be serving in the army or participating in national service.

Israel Hayom has learned that the bill, proposed by Education, Culture and Sports Committee chairman Alex Miller, stipulates that the government will not grant funding assistance to a male student under the age of 20, or a female student under 19 who has not yet served in the Israel Defense Forces or the national or civil service programs.

The new rules would not apply to the IDF's "Atudai" program, which allows students to defer their military service until after they complete academic degrees, to soldiers discharged due to health issues, to outstanding students who began academic studies while still in high school, or to those who immigrated to Israel after the age of 17.

The government subsidizes student tuition for a number of Israeli institutions, granting eligible students up to NIS 10,000 (about $2,900) per year. According to Yisrael Beitenu's proposal, anyone who begins their studies before the stipulated age would have to pay double or more the tuition fees. Many such students are from the Arab sector.

"In Israel, one must serve the state, either through the IDF, or the national or civil service programs," Miller told Israel Hayom. "Government aid for academic students who choose, for whatever reason, not to contribute to society and the state gives them a significant and unfair advantage in obtaining an academic degree and in finding a good job later on. They do so at the expense of others who sacrifice those years in the service of the state."

"The state provides up to 70 percent of the budgets of some institutions of higher learning, in accordance with the number of students enrolled in them, which means it effectively subsidizes two-thirds of tuition per student," Miller said. "The proposed arrangement would suspend that subsidy to prevent unfair discrimination against those who contribute to national service and are not studying at institutions of higher learning during their service. This will highlight the state's contribution to their choice of service as well."

In an explanation of the proposal, Yisrael Beitenu wrote: "The purpose of this proposal, among other things, is to combat draft dodging by preventing those who did not serve the state from gaining the advantage of obtaining an academic degree and a good job. Those who served the state honorably deserve to have those chances first. Someone who completed high school at the age of 18 and instead of being drafted into the IDF chose to pursue academic studies will be able to do so, but not at the expense of taxpayers. This is not an absolute prohibition, but only a prohibition against using government funds to pursue those studies."

On Sunday, the Ministerial Committee for Legislation is set to debate a bill proposed by MK Moshe Matalon of Yisrael Beitenu that would increase the standard one-time government grant for discharged soldiers to one month's average wage for each year of service in the IDF. This means that a soldier who serves in the IDF for 36 months wouldl receive a one-time grant of up to NIS 27,000, instead of the NIS 7,400 currently granted to discharged soldiers.