Supermodel Bar Refaeli Should Be Banned From Pro-Israel Ads, Army Says
The Israeli Defense Forces criticized a public relations campaign launched by the Foreign Ministry to boost Israel’s image around the world because it starred sexy Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli, an Israeli TV station reported Sunday.
The report stated that the IDF spokesman sent an official letter to the Foreign Ministry arguing that by using Refaeli, who didn’t complete her military service, the Foreign Ministry was sending a “message of forgiveness and turns a blind eye towards people that chose to enlist.”
“In recent years, the IDF has been trying a verity of methods to improve the value of military service and to fight draft evasion, in order to preserve the moral dimension whereby the IDF is the people’s army,” Channel Two quoted the letter.
The letter went on to argue that although public relations campaigns abroad are not the IDF’s responsibility the foreign ministry should had wave taken into account: “the negative message sent out to Israeli society from the inclusion of Bar Refaeli, who did not complete national service, as Israel’s representative in a public relations campaign.”
Several years ago, the IDF conducted an aggressive campaign against celebrities who did not serve in the IDF.
For more, go to Haaretz.com
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO