IDF declared war on suicide
In the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) suicides are extremely rare. Thus, according to the analytical department of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament), over the past six years, during military service, 124 soldiers, including 101 conscript soldiers, committed suicide. 37% suicides - repatriates from different countries, 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 came from Ethiopia. Soldiers who were born in Israel in the families of repatriates are not separately reflected in the statistics, they are usually considered together with the natives of the country.Over the past six years, 70 Jewish soldiers born in Israel, 8 Druze and Muslims, and 10 with unspecified creed or nationality have committed suicide. This group consists mainly of immigrants from the former USSR, who for various reasons did not consider it necessary to determine these items. The servicemen of the rear units put their hands on themselves more often than soldiers of combat units. The highest risk of suicide during the first year of service, and 20% of all army suicides accounted for recruits who donned a uniform less than six months ago.
However, it is wrong to determine the number of suicides among the Israeli military by the average number of people per year in 20. Thanks to active preventive work, primarily by army psychologists, in 2012, the number of suicides in the IDF was reduced to 12. 2013 and 2014 suicides respectively occurred in 10 and 9. Given that the personnel of the IDF is about 180 thousand soldiers, the percentage of suicides in the Israeli army is objectively very low.
DO NOT TURN IN TERMS
If we compare this figure with the manifestations of suicide, for example, in the army of Taiwan, in terms of the number of military personnel - 290 thousand, quite comparable to the IDF, then in this insular army, 300 soldiers voluntarily died in the last ten years. Comparison of suicide rates 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 imbalance of both the population of these countries and the corresponding personnel armies. Although here we will pay attention to this fact: the number of annually occurring suicides of the American army is about one and a half times ahead of the Russian.
Interestingly, in one of the first June issues of the Los Angeles Times for the current 2015 year, data were published that according to American women aged 18 to 29 who participated in military campaigns, suicide cases occur more often in 12 than among women civilian occupations of the same age category. To explain this phenomenon in the female veteran environment, as well as suicide in general, is very difficult. 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 growing.
According to the London television program Panorama, in 2012, in the current British army, 21 soldiers committed suicide. In addition, 29 veterans got their scores to life. That same year, the British military 44 died in Afghanistan, of which 40 directly during the fighting against the Taliban.
The noticeable decline in recent years of suicidal phenomena in the IDF is largely due to a special training program not only for military psychologists, but also for commanders of all levels who constantly communicate with soldiers. Colonel Eyal Proctor, the head of the mental health unit of the IDF, responding to the relevant inquiry of the Jerusalem Post regarding these programs, stressed that military psychologists and commanders are focused on helping all military personnel who are in a situation of mental crisis and personal difficulties. Israeli doctors cannot and never allow people with mental illness to join the military service. But suicides, if we exclude drug addicts and heavy alcoholics, do not belong in the majority of cases to the category of the psychiatric.
“The idea of suicide sometimes arises almost“ out of the blue, ”military psychologist Major Galit Stepanov stresses in an interview with NVO (by the way, a native of Yekaterinburg, at the age of three, moved with her parents to Israel; in Russia her name and surname sounded like Galina Stepanova), and it is impossible to completely eliminate 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, army service is a vital institution. However, at the same time we can not forget another thing: there are those who cannot serve. Basically for medical reasons. But this fact should not give these people a sense of second-rate. “To prevent a suicidal development of events,” Galit Stepanov continues his thought, “it is necessary for parents, other family members, military doctors, commanders, colleagues, friends not to miss the drastic change in sentiments of a person suffering from certain problems.”
Psychiatric professor Hagai Hermesh, speaking on the Russian-speaking 9 th Israeli TV channel, called himself "a shoemaker without shoes." And indeed, this professor with thirty years of experience, specializing in the problems of suicides, there was a family tragedy. In 1994, his son, Asaf, while serving in the military, committed suicide with a shot from his personal weapons. This suicide happened at home, during the dismissal, after a quarrel with his girlfriend. Such servicemen are called “weekend suicides”.
"Asaph 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 her 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 when they were fired, the weekend suicides became three times less. Although in the overwhelming majority of cases, the 103 of 124 is now a personal weapon as a weapon of suicide.
The IDF lieutenant colonel Yoray Barak, an army psychologist, speaking on the same Russian-language television channel, stressed that the army does not hide the number of suicides among the military, or their reasons. Most of the young people die out for personal reasons, most often because of a breakdown in relationships with loved ones or parents. Jerusalem Post newspaper columnist Ben Hartman writes in an article with the notable title “Does the IDF hide the truth about suicides?”: “No structure of the Israeli army keeps information about suicides secret because this information is not a state secret.”
Professor Enver Alper Huvel of Чukurov University (Adana, Turkey) in the article “Why does a soldier commit suicide?”, Published in the governmental newspaper Yeni Shufak (New Dawn), expresses the following point of view: “The reason for the suicide of soldiers lies in the impossibility of quick adaptation of a certain number of young people, often in the greenhouse conditions of the parental home and in conditions of subordination and life risk. ” Thus, a suicidal soldier finds himself in a socio-psychological maladjustment leading to a psychological vacuum. Professor Huvel calls suicide "the soundless cry of an inexperienced individual who has faced problems that cause him unbearable pain."
According to the classical classification of suicides proposed by French sociologist and philosopher David Emile Durkheim (1858 – 1917), suicide of young people, not excluding, of course, and soldiers, most often belong to altruistic suicide, when imposing on his hands believes that his death will release him from heartache and at the same time the tragedy brought by his own death to the family, will be quite tolerable.
Non-statutory relations, in other words, hazing, in the IDF does not exist. There are practically no problems with commanders. In most cases, the cause of the imposition of the hands of a young Israeli is, again, unrequited love or problems with parents. This also applies to military personnel in most armies in the world. With rare exceptions. The NVO correspondent had to face one of these “exceptions”. Fortunately, purely speculative and irrespective of the IDF itself. Although the meeting took place on a street in South Tel Aviv.
WHY ERITRIANS WANT TO SERVE IN THE COAT
In the Jewish state, there are at least 200 thousand illegal immigrants from different countries of the world, but mainly from Africa. In South Tel Aviv, which is considered the most disadvantaged area of the city, there are at least 20 thousands of illegal immigrants from Eritrea. One of these illegal immigrants, who identified themselves as Said and entered the Jewish state through the Israeli-Egyptian border, I recently had a chance to talk. According to him, the main reason for the presence of young and not so young Eritreans in Israel is not so much economic, as, according to Said, “military-political”. Both boys and girls are usually called into the Eritrean army immediately after completing secondary or incomplete secondary education. The draft age is 16 years. If a draftee goes to school, he may become a recruit later - in 18 years. But if the young man did not receive any education by this age, he is still called upon. Initially for six months. Then exams are required in a higher or secondary educational institution in order to obtain a profession. This is where the main problem begins. Non-passing examinations from the army service are not exempt, but serve for another two years. Then they are again strongly (or rather, without alternative) invited to pass exams. And in any educational institution. And if they again fail, they have no choice but to return to uncompleted army ranks for another two years. According to Said, the conditions of service in the Eritrean army are terrible, and quite a few of his compatriots committed suicide, having served in the Eritrean army for 15 for more than 10 years and not seeing the prospect of demobilization in the coming years. After all, formally, reservists are called up to the 60 age. True, married girls after 31, when there is at least one child, are demobilized. In addition, demobilized women are not called up for annual army training, mandatory for all healthy men, regardless of education.
There is no exact data on the number of suicides among Eritrean soldiers, and it can hardly be. Because such statistics does not lead, or rather, does not provide the majority of the world. Although taking into account the above characteristics of the Eritrean army, it is she who may well claim to be the record holder in the number of military men who lay hands on themselves. “Of course, we would like to serve in the IDF,” said illegal immigrant Said, “but we do not have Israeli citizenship, and they don’t even take us as volunteers.”
NOT NICE DEATH
The army is an undoubted slice of society. There is no state, and there is no army in which suicide would not occur. However, society is obliged to resist this, in fact, unnatural phenomenon. To do this, you must not give despair or guilt to seize the soul of a person in a difficult life situation. The famous commander Napoleon I, who himself in his hectic 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 arbitrarily deprives himself of life is no better than a deserter who flees before the battle from the battlefield. ”
And indeed, a soldier who takes the life of himself, and not his enemies, is on the side of the enemy. At least his army he does not help. Otherwise, as a deserter it can not be called. And the attitude towards deserters in all armies is appropriate.
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