Israeli Army Bans Women Hitchhikers
The Israeli army Monday banned night-time hitchhiking by women soldiers after a 20-year-old West German woman was shot and left for dead on a desert road.
The case of Miriam Stucker, from Hamburg, was the latest in a series of attacks on hitchhikers. Since 1979, a dozen Israeli soldiers have been killed while hitchhiking.
Stucker, who came to Israel to work on a kibbutz collective settlement, was the first foreign victim. She was unconscious and in critical condition in a hospital.
The incident aroused much publicity and the army, responding to parents’ anxiety, said it will court-martial any woman soldier who defies its ban.
Israel’s army has long traveled on its thumb. Newspaper advertisements urge readers to give soldiers a lift.
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