In the IDF (Israel Defense Forces), suicide is extremely rare. Thus, according to the analytical department of the Knesset (Israeli parliament), over the past six years, 124 servicemen, including 101 conscripts, have committed suicide during their military service. 37% of suicides are immigrants from different countries who were born outside of Israel. In numerical terms, the alignment is as follows: 25 suicides were committed by soldiers born in the countries of the former USSR, 10 by immigrants from Ethiopia. Soldiers who were born in Israel in families of repatriates are not separately reflected in the statistics, they are usually counted together with the natives of the country.
Over the past six years, 70 Israeli-born Jewish soldiers, 8 Druze and Muslims, and 10 of unspecified religion or nationality have committed suicide. This group includes mainly immigrants from the former USSR, who for various reasons did not consider it necessary to be determined on these points. Servicemen of the rear units lay hands on themselves more often than soldiers of combat units. The highest risk of suicide is during the first year of service, and 20% of all army suicides are among recruits who donned a uniform less than six months ago.
However, it is incorrect to estimate the number of suicides among the Israeli military at an average of 20 per year. Thanks to active preventive work, primarily by army psychologists, in 2012 the number of suicides in the IDF dropped to 12. In 2013 and 2014, there were 10 and 9 suicides, respectively. Taking into account the fact that the IDF has about 180,000 servicemen, the percentage of suicides in the Israeli army is objectively very low.
DO NOT BE CONFUSED IN TERMS
If we compare this figure with the manifestations of suicide, for example, in the Taiwanese army, in terms of the number of military personnel - 290 thousand, it is quite comparable to the IDF, then in this island army over the past ten years, 300 servicemen have voluntarily died. Comparison of the number of suicides among the Israeli military with the corresponding data for the armies of the United States, Russia and Great Britain is incorrect due to the huge quantitative disparity in both the population of these countries and, accordingly, the cadre armies. Although here we will pay attention to the following fact: in terms of the number of suicides occurring annually, the American army is approximately one and a half times ahead of the Russian one.
Interestingly, in one of the first June issues of the Los Angeles Times for the current 2015, data were published according to which among American women aged 18 to 29 who participated in military campaigns, suicide cases are manifested 12 times more often than among representatives civilian occupations of the same age category. It is very difficult to explain such a phenomenon in the female veteran environment, as well as suicide in general. Psychologists believe that the process of post-traumatic "burnout" in women is not much less than in men. Especially if these women are left alone. At the same time, according to various sources, suicidal phenomena in the US Army are on the rise.
According to the London television program Panorama, in 2012, 21 soldiers in the British army committed suicide. In addition, another 29 veterans took their own lives. In the same year, 44 British soldiers were killed in Afghanistan, 40 of them directly during the fighting against the Taliban.
The noticeable decrease in suicidal events in the IDF in recent years is largely due to a special training program not only for military psychologists, but also for commanders of all echelons who constantly communicate with soldiers. The head of the IDF mental health unit, Colonel Eyal Proctor, responding to a request from the Jerusalem Post for these programs, stressed that military psychologists and commanders are focused on helping all military personnel who find themselves in a situation of mental crisis and personal difficulties. Israeli doctors cannot admit and never admit persons with mental illness to military service. But suicides, if you exclude drug addicts and heavy alcoholics, do not in most cases belong to the category of psychiatric patients.
“The thought of suicide sometimes arises almost out of the blue,” military psychologist Major Galit Stepanov (by the way, a native of Yekaterinburg, who moved to Israel with her parents in Russia; in Russia, her name and surname sounded like Galina Stepanova), and it is impossible to completely exclude suicidal phenomena in more or less significant groups of people. Major Stepanov spoke about several suicide attempts by conscripts who never became soldiers for medical reasons. Offended, these young people tried to commit suicide. Indeed, in Israel, the military is a vital institution. However, at the same time, we must not forget another thing: there are those who cannot serve. Mainly for medical reasons. But this fact should not give these people a feeling of inferiority. “To prevent a suicidal development of events,” continues his thought, Galit Stepanov, “it is necessary for parents, other family members, military doctors, commanders, colleagues, friends not to pass by a sharp change in the mood of a person suffering from certain problems.”
Professor-psychiatrist Hagai Hermesh, speaking on the air of the Russian-language 9th Israeli TV channel, called himself "a shoemaker without boots." Indeed, this 30-year-old professor of suicide has had a family tragedy. In 1994, his son, Asaf, while in military service, committed suicide with a shot from his personal weapon. This suicide happened at home, during the dismissal, after a quarrel with his girlfriend. Such servicemen are called weekend suicides.
“Asaf was 19 years old,” his father explains the situation, “he graduated with honors from school, was an athlete, served in combat units, but when he learned that his girlfriend preferred another, he could not stand it and voluntarily passed away.” After in 2006 the army sharply limited the number of soldiers who were allowed to leave the base with weapons on leave, “weekend suicides” have decreased by three times. Although now the instrument of suicide in the overwhelming majority of cases - 103 out of 124 - is a personal weapon.
Lieutenant Colonel of the IDF Yoray Barak, an army psychologist, speaking on the air of the same Russian-language TV channel, stressed that the army does not hide either the number of suicides among the military, or their reasons. Most young people die for personal reasons, most often because of a breakdown in relationships with loved ones or parents. Jerusalem Post columnist Ben Hartman writes in an article with the noteworthy title "Is the IDF hiding the truth about suicides?"
Professor Enver Alper Guvel from ukurov University (Adana, Turkey) in the article "Why does a soldier commit suicide?" impossibility of quick adaptation of a certain number of young people,often staying in the greenhouse conditions of the parental home and finding themselves in conditions of subordination and life risk. " Thus, the suicidal soldier finds himself in a socio-psychological maladjustment, leading to a psychological vacuum. Professor Guvel calls suicide "the soundless cry of an inexperienced individual who is faced with problems that cause him unbearable pain."
In accordance with the classical classification of suicides proposed by the French sociologist and philosopher David Émile Durkheim (1858-1917), the suicides of young people, not excluding, of course, soldiers, are most often referred to as altruistic suicide, when the suicide suicide believes that his death will free him from mental pain, and at the same time the tragedy brought by his death into the family will be quite bearable.
Non-regulation relationships, in other words, bullying, do not exist in the IDF. There are practically no problems with commanders. In most cases, the reason for the laying on of hands by a young Israeli is, again, unrequited love or problems with parents. This also applies to military personnel in most of the world's armies. With rare exceptions. An NVO correspondent had to face one of these "exceptions." Fortunately, purely speculative and without direct reference to the IDF. Although the meeting took place on one of the streets of South Tel Aviv.
WHY THE ERITREIANS WANT TO SERVE IN THE IDF
In the Jewish state there are at least 200 thousand illegal immigrants from different countries of the world, but mainly from Africa. South Tel Aviv, considered the most disadvantaged area of the city, is home to at least 20 thousand illegal immigrants from Eritrea. With one of these illegal immigrants, who identified himself as Said and got into the Jewish state through the Israeli-Egyptian border, relatively recently I had a chance to talk. According to him, the main reason for the stay of young and not very young Eritreans in Israel is not so much economic as, as Said believes, "military-political." Both boys and girls are usually drafted into the Eritrean army immediately after completing their full or incomplete secondary education. The draft age is 16 years. If a conscript goes to school, then he can become a recruit later - at the age of 18. But if by this age the young man has not received any education, he is still called up. Initially for six months. Then exams are required to enter a higher or secondary educational institution in order to obtain a profession. This is where the main problem begins. Those who fail the exams are not exempt from military service, but serve for another two years. Then they are again strongly (or rather, no alternative) invited to pass the exams. And in any educational institution. And if they fail again, then they have no choice but to return to the unclosed army ranks for another two years. According to Said, the conditions of service in the Eritrean army are terrible, and many of his compatriots committed suicide after serving in the Eritrean army for 15 years or more and seeing no prospect of demobilization in the coming years. After all, formally, reservists are called up before the age of 60. True, married girls after 31 years of age with at least one child are demobilized. In addition, demobilized women are not called up for the annual army fees, which are compulsory for all healthy men, regardless of education.
There is no exact data on the number of suicides among the Eritrean military personnel, and it is unlikely to be. Because such statistics are not kept, or rather, are not provided by most countries in the world. Although, taking into account the above characteristics of the Eritrean army, it is she who may well claim the title of the record holder in the number of military men laying hands on themselves. “Of course, we would like to serve in the IDF,” says the illegal immigrant Said, “but we do not have Israeli citizenship, and they don’t even hire us as volunteers.”
NOT A GLORIOUS DEATH
The army is an undeniable slice of society. There is no state, just as there is no army in which suicides do not occur. However, society is obliged to resist such an essentially unnatural phenomenon. To do this, it is necessary not to let despair or guilt take over the soul of a person who finds himself in a difficult life situation. The famous commander Napoleon I, who himself in his stormy life more than once was close to suicide, still did not take such a step. He once said: “To deprive oneself of life because of love is madness, because of the loss of a state - baseness, because of offended honor - weakness. A warrior who takes his own life without permission is no better than a deserter who escapes from the battlefield before battle."
And indeed a soldier who takes the life of himself, and not his enemies, turns out to be on the side of the enemy. At least he doesn't help his army. You cannot call him otherwise a deserter. And the attitude towards deserters in all armies is appropriate.
