In the current debate about how to bury IDF veterans who take their own lives after serving in combat, the clear obligation is to acknowledge those deaths as if such individuals had been killed by live fire, as their mental wounds were no less serious than the physical ones that killed so many others. It is the least a grateful nation can do to provide solace for the bereaved families.
The statistics in these situations are clear. The IDF released its annual casualty summary for last year on December 30, reporting that 21 soldiers died in suspected suicides in 2025. The suicide figure matches the 2024 total of 21 cases, compared with 14 in 2022 and a single-digit number in 2020. The military attributes the sustained increase to the prolonged war and its psychological impact on service members. (n.b. The IDF acknowledges clear cause and effect regarding active-duty combat and injurious psychological impact.)
In the past, IDF troops who took their own lives after serving in combat were not accorded burial in a military cemetery or full military honors. The logic presumably was that they were not injured in combat per se but were dealing with unresolved psychological issues. However, if someone develops psychological issues as a result of the personal experience of combat, weren’t they actually injured in combat? It would seem specious to think otherwise.
Injury, a noun, has several similar meanings according to the dictionary, all involving physical harm or wrongdoing.
While injury often refers to physical damage, it can also be used more figuratively to describe something that’s unjust or that causes harm that isn’t physical. For example, your estranged grandfather might do you the injury of leaving you out of his will. The word comes from in-, meaning “not,” and the Latin root ius or iur, meaning “right.” So, an injury is something that’s not right – it’s something that has gone wrong that leads to damage.
Recognizing the hidden cost of combat
It then becomes clear that someone who has served in the IDF in a combat role and later decides to take his or her own life, is a clear example of something that went wrong during the experience that led to brain damage and ultimately suicide. In that sense, the soldier is clearly a combat casualty and deserves to be fully recognized accordingly.
It is praiseworthy that the IDF established a special committee chaired by the former head of its Personnel Directorate, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Moti Almoz to look into the matter. The panel examined how the military and state responded to the families of regular and reserve service members who took their own lives after completing service, in circumstances that may be linked to their military duty.
The committee has recommended that such individuals be buried in civilian cemeteries with civilian headstones, but with military accompaniment, including a commander’s eulogy, the presence of soldiers, and initial family support. According to the IDF, personnel officials would verify within hours of a death that the individual had served in the military within the previous two years, either as a combat or noncombat soldier.
This is a step in the right direction but not enough given the sacrifice involved. Israeli parents send their children off to war with their blessings secure in the knowledge that (a) they will return, hopefully alive and (b) if, heaven forbid, in a plain pine box, that they will be buried with full recognition of their sacrifice. Young men and women who are prepared to make this sacrifice should not have the level of honor they will receive at their burial time related to the effect of their injuries.
Thankfully, we are speaking about a very small cadre of people, which should make it even easier for us to do the right thing.
General George S. Patton said: “It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather, we should thank God that such men lived.”
Traditionally, Israel buries its fallen with honor and dignity. Those who volunteered to put their lives on the line so that the rest of us can be safe are owed every measure of respect at the time of their passing. Such funerals, at military cemeteries with full honors, will echo Patton’s admonition that “we should thank God that such men lived.” It is because of their willingness to sacrifice their lives that we individually and the country as a whole lives. May their memories be blessed.
The writer, a 43-year resident of Jerusalem, is a former national president of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, a past chairperson of the board of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, and a board member of the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM).