Little Progress Made on New Ultra-Orthodox Military Draft Bill

After hours of discussion Tuesday night between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and representatives of  two of the coalition’s Haredi parties, (United Torah Judaism and Shas) very little progress was made on an Orthodox military draft bill and no additional meetings have been scheduled. 

The law allowing young Haredi men to delay their military service for yeshiva until they reached the age of exemption expired last year. The Supreme Court has given the government until April 1st to propose a bill and until June 30th to pass it. The original outline of the new bill does not set a quota of Haredi men drafting each year, but rather raises the exemption age to 35. 

The ultra-Orthodox community is greatly criticizing this, as requiring young men to stay in yeshiva for decades rather than enter the workforce in their mid 20s would encourage them to draft rather than devote their lives to Jewish study. The original draft of the bill also proposes a plan for Orthodox battalions in the IDF and Haredi positions in Israel’s emergency services and government offices. 

The United Torah Judaism party has threatened to leave Netanyahu’s coalition if the proposal includes annual recruitment targets of yeshiva students and financial penalties for Haredi educational institutions that don’t meet those quotas. The loss of Orthodox parties would cause Netanyahu’s government to crumble. Meanwhile, an organization called the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, which believes every Israeli citizen should participate in military service, says “Sharing the burden of military service equally is an existential necessity for the State of Israel and Israeli society, and there is no way to achieve it other than the enactment of a uniform and equal enlistment law that will apply to all.”

 IDF commanders worry that Orthodox exemption would create feelings of inequality throughout the country and leave the reserve system unable to meet its requirements.