Israel Supermodel Bar Refaeli. Photo: www.girlhairstyles.org

The commercial that sparked the latest Israeli public relations campaign controversy has been released. Bar Refaeli stars in the ad, which bothered many Israelis because of Refaeli’s evasion of the country’s compulsory military draft. According to Israeli law women are required to serve two years in the army. Refaeli, however, found a loophole by marrying a family friend in 2007 so that she could continue her  modeling career.

Israel’s Channel 2 News reported the contents of a letter sent by IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai to the Foreign Ministry Director:

“The choice of a representative who did not serve in the military as an official presenter on behalf of Israel, conveys the message that we ignore and forgive evasion of enlistment, and encourages identification, among youths of both sexes, with the success of those who did not enlist … The IDF has been operating, in the last few years, in a variety of ways, to strengthen the value of IDF service, and to fight the phenomenon of enlistment evasion, in order to preserve the societal value that sees the IDF as the people’s army.”

Below is the video of Refaeli’s commercial: