Bar Refaeli Has Gotten Herself in Career Trouble With her Latest Gig

Bar Refaeli has found herself in a bit of hot model water. According to The Times of Israel, the Israeli supermodel created controversy in 2003 when she opted not to finish her compulsory military service by marrying a family acquaintance whom she divorced soon after — a perceived slight some of her countrymen and women have still not forgiven. Basically she said serving in the army would interfere with her rocking modeling career. But now she has made a really bold move by posing for a new series of campaigns for the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Israel Defense Forces are not pleased that a woman who wouldn’t serve her country is now representing them.

In the IDF letter, Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai wrote that the campaign was promoting “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. In recent years, the IDF has been trying a variety of methods to improve the value of military service and to combat draft evasion, in order to preserve the moral dimension whereby the IDF is the people’s army,” the letter read. “Refaeli is considered one of the most beautiful women in the world and is widely recognized as an Israel. There is no reason to bring up the past when it comes to a campaign of public diplomacy of this kind.”

The ads are aimed to show Israel’s technological and innovative side but this is getting overshadowed by the controversy. But Refaeli is not the only Israeli celebrity to get scolded by the IDF. Many years ago, the IDF led a campaign against celebrities who chose not to serve in the military.

This morning Refaeli tweeted in Hebrew “You can use the clip for the Foreign Ministry or drop it, but my Instagram feed has more readers than Israel’s most popular newspaper [Yedioth Ahronoth]!”

This is tough for the model but she should have expected it. When she landed a campaign with Fox in 2008, a boycott was threatened, demanding that Refaeli complete her military service before appearing in the ads. But she got through that one when she promised she would visit hospitalized IDF soliders and encourage enlistment.

TAGS: Models | news

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