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Jordan Conscription
After an Israeli raid on a West Bank border village in 1966,
the government passed an emergency conscription act under which
physically fit males would be drafted for training and service with
regular military units for periods of up to two years. The same
law, however, provided the loophole of a fixed fee payable in lieu
of service, as well as other exemption provisions. In practice,
military units kept their original character, recruiting continued
for a time to be more than adequate, and the law became
inoperative.
On January 1, 1976, a new National Service Law was issued by
royal decree, establishing a service commitment of two years for
men called to active duty by the General Directorate of
Conscription and Mobilization of the Ministry of Defense. The new
law coincided with government plans to modernize the army, which
was to be completely mechanized within eighteen months. Moreover,
the projected acquisition of sophisticated aircraft and missiles
for the air force had brought into sharp focus the need to upgrade
the skills and technical abilities of active-duty personnel. The
new military service law was an effort to reduce reliance on the
less educated bedouin servicemen by incorporating the better
educated and skilled city dwellers--most of them Palestinians--to
meet personnel needs in an era of modern weaponry.
The new law provided for conscription at the age of eighteen
but encouraged students to continue their schooling through
university level by a complex system of service postponements. Once
an academic degree was received or the student reached the age of
twenty-eight, the two-year service commitment had to be fulfilled.
Jordanians working abroad also could postpone their military
obligation. Exemptions were limited to those who could not pass the
required medical examination because of permanent disability, those
who were only sons, and the brothers of men who had died while in
service in the armed forces. Any male of conscription age was
prohibited from being employed unless he had been exempted from
service or unless his call-up had been deferred because the armed
forces had a temporary sufficiency. The law established an
extensive system of veterans' rights, including job seniority, for
men who had fulfilled their service commitment.
Of approximately 30,000 Jordanians who reached military age
annually, about 20,000 were available for compulsory service,
although the actual number called up was limited by the prevailing
budgetary situation. The conscription system also assisted in
filling gaps that had developed as a result of insufficient
recruitment by inducing a greater number of young men to join the
regular army. Volunteers for an initial five-year enlistment were
paid on an adequate scale instead of the very low wage of
conscripts and could aspire to higher positions and training
opportunities.
Data as of December 1989
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