Guidelines for wearing decorations by soldiers
 

IDF General Staff regulations 33.0611 and 33.0811 prescribe the order of wearing decorations by soldiers. Many of the rules are similar to those for civilians and published by the Ministry of Defense.

Medals
Wearing the ribbon of the decorations (Medal of Valor, Medal of Courage, Medal of Distinguished Service) is allowed at all times, however the medal may only be worn on the following occasions:

  • Independence Day
  • Remembrance Day for Israel’s Fallen Soldiers
  • State ceremonies, military parades and IDF shows
  • Other occasions as determined by the Minister of Defense

Ribbons
Decorations and ribbons shall only be worn on appropriate uniforms, not on Class B uniforms etc, except for reserve soldiers who may wear ribbons also on Class B uniforms.

A soldier is obliged to wear the campaign ribbons that were awarded to him.

Ribbons should be worn above the left chest pocket or on the parallel place for a dress without such a pocket. 

The ribbons shall be combined into rows, in declining order or priority from left to right, provided that there are no more than 2 ribbons per row*. In case of an uneven number of ribbons, a single ribbon shall be mounted in the middle of the top row.
   
Rows from top to bottom:

 

   Remark: "Left" and "right" are here as seen standing opposite the person, Left=center of chest
a   from left to right: Medal of Valor, Medal of Courage, Medal of Distinguished Service
 
b   from left to right: Chief Of Staff Citation, Territorial Commander Citation, Divisional Commander Citation
 
c  

Campaign Ribbons, from left to right: War of Independence, Sinai Campaign, Six Day War, War of Attrition, Yom Kippur War, "Peace For Galilee" War, Lebanon Security Zone, Second Lebanon War, Operation Protective Edge
 
d   Service Ribbons for acts before the Independence of Israel.
 
e   Decorations of foreign countries, after permission is granted by the IDF personnel department.
 
The website of the Ministry of Defense used to have the following picture, to illustrate above rules. Nowadays the picture is not shown.
.
 
I believe that above rules a) and b) were based on the tradition in Europe, the highest decoration is worn close to the heart (as a token of loyalty to the sovereign who awarded the decoration) and lower decorations are worn next to the first, in the direction to the left arm.
Likewise, service ribbons and campaign ribbons follow the rule that the oldest ribbon is to be worn close to the heart, with more recent ribbons next to the first in the direction to the left arm.
The problem starts when there is more than 1 row of service ribbons and campaign ribbons, because according to the MOD rules, the more recent ribbons are to be placed above the first row, not below.
So the decorations/citations go from left to right, top to bottom but service/campaign ribbons go from left to right, bottom to top.  A conflict appears when a decoration/citation appears together with a service/campaign ribbon on the same row.
For instance three campaign ribbons together with the Medal of Distinguished Service are sometimes seen as:
 
 
In my opinion the Medal of Distinguished Service should be mounted on the most left place:
 
 
This uncertainty could be avoided if the Ministry of Defense would publish a clear order of wear of all decorations and ribbons, like what is custom in the UK and USA and many other countries
 
 
Samples:

The correct order of the ribbons War of Attrition, Yom Kippur War,
 "Peace For Galilee" War, Second Lebanon War

  
   

The correct order of the ribbons Six Day War, War of Attrition, Yom Kippur War and "Peace For Galilee" War

 
 


The correct order of the ribbons War of Attrition,
Yom Kippur War and "Peace For Galilee" War
Badges
Badges such as:
  • President's Award for Outstanding Soldiers
  • Israel Security Award
  • Operational Service badge
  • Palmach badge
  • Jewish Brigade badge
  • Badge of Jerusalem

should be worn on the right side of the uniform, so not at the side of the ribbons

Sample of correct wearing:

Ribbons on the left chest side, Operational Service badge on the right side
(Major General Shlomo Yanai, chief of the Southern Command)
 
Source Rules: IDF site (Hebrew)
Source ribbon pictures: www.zahal.org

* This limitation of 2 ribbons per row is probably of the last few years.
 

 automatic arrangement of ribbons - a rackbuilder - not working at the moment