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Israeli security officers become multimillionaires on their retirement

February 15, 2014 at 1:27 pm

Documents from the Israeli Ministry of Defence show that retired Israeli security officers are paid large sums of money enough to make them millionaires or even multimillionaires, an Israeli newspaper has revealed. An investigation by The Marker, which is published in Hebrew, revealed that high-ranking security and military officers get around $3 million at the end of their service.

Around 33 per cent of retired officers in Israel, The Marker claimed, receive pay-offs between $1.2 and $1.5 million; 12 per cent get from $1.5 to $1.8m; eight per cent get $1.8 to $1.9m; and another group of eight per cent gets from $2.1 to $2.7m. “High-ranking” includes Generals, academics in military service and pilots. It claimed that an Israeli air force pilot gets $2.1m upon retirement.


Apart from money, claimed The Marker investigation, such officers are also offered senior civilian positions when they leave the armed forces.

The Marker raised the issue of the large pay-offs for retired officers several years ago. The Ministry of Defence promised to study the issue then.

Despite this, the newspaper claims, such payments have continued.

It is alleged that Israel’s Ministry of Finance has complained about this drain on resources but successive Prime Ministers have silenced the complaints. Finance officials have, therefore, felt impelled to leak details of the scheme to raise public awareness.