Yahadut Hatorah and Shas will present a list of three changes that must be made in the draft law for them to support it in its second and third readings in Knesset, KAN Reshet Bet reported on Monday morning, 23 Elul.

The negotiations surrounding the draft law, which has passed its first reading in Knesset, are likely to resume towards the opening of the winter session on October 14th, corresponding to 5 Cheshvan 5779, after the Tishrei Yomim Tovim.

The first demand addresses the maximum fines that may be levied against yeshivos for failing to meet induction quotas. The chareidim will seek to moderate the amount that may be levied each year if/when the yeshivos do not meet the induction quotas.

The second requirement is the percentage of meeting the goals required each year from the yeshivos. To date, the yeshivos are required to meet 85% of the recruitment goals annually. The chareidi parties will seek to reduce that figure.

The third requirement relates to the number of years that will pass before the law is annulled if the chareidim do not meet the recruitment goals.

According to the proposed law, the draft law will be repealed and replaced by the Defense Service Law, which applies to every young person aged 18, if the recruitment targets are not met for three consecutive years. That means, failure to meet induction goals for three years will cancel the arrangement and all bnei yeshivos will become eligible for induction into the IDF.

The chareidi parties will seek to determine that it will take four or five consecutive years of non-compliance with the goals before the law is annulled and not the current three.

MK Oded Forer of Yisrael Beitenu said that his party would oppose any change in the law. “The law that we submitted is the law that must be passed, and I see no reason why this manpower should continue to evade enlistment,” he told radio host Aryeh Golan during an interview with Reshet Bet.

In addition to the statement by the Yisrael Beitenu MK, the Yesh Atid opposition party backed the draft law in the first reading, and it has state clearly, it too will not tolerate any change in the current wording, and if a modified bill is passed into law, it will be the first to challenge it in the High Court of Justice.

While the chareidi lawmakers are still trying to make the new law more palatable, they are keenly aware that any bill passed into law will have to be able to withstand petitions to the High Court of Justice, and if the latter disqualifies the law, as it did to the last draft law, the fate of the bnei yeshivos would rest in the hands of the High Court, which is a most worrisome scenario.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)