The Peri Share the Burden Committee will on Sunday evening, 17 Sivan vote on the draft law in the hope of completing its work and passing the bill on to the cabinet for approval.
The committee is expected to have a majority voting in favor of the new law which will result in a significant increase in the number of chareidim serving in the IDF and nation service programs. Yisrael Beitenu announced it will vote against the bill since it neglects to call for the draft of minorities, i.e. Israeli Arabs. Bayit Yehudi is also expected to oppose the bill due to efforts to curtail limud of hesder yeshiva talmidim, to compel them to serve 24 months in the military. Bayit Yehudi is signaling it will not agree to more than 17 month of military service for hesder talmidim.
The ministers serving on the committee are Moshe Ya’alon and Limor Livnat of Likud, Uri Ariel of Bayit Yehudi, Amir Peretz of The Movement, Yaakov Peri of Yesh Atid, and Yitzchak Aharonovich of Yisrael Beitenu. They will vote on each clause of the bill separately.
In line with the committee’s recommendations, all 17-year-olds will have to report to an induction center at which time they may request to defer their military service to continue learning until the age of 21. If one fails to report, the yeshiva he attends will lose funding for him. In addition, when the person is apprehended he will be drafted immediately, losing the ability to push off service for four years.
After a talmid requests to push off service to continue learning the rosh yeshiva will have to sign attesting to the fact the talmid is question is indeed a fulltime talmid. The yeshivos will have to take attendance and file reports with government authorities to make certain talmidim are learning a minimum of 45 hours weekly.
Failure to comply with the above will result in sanctions against the talmid as well as the yeshiva.
Efforts will continue during the day to bridge the gaps in the hope of the ministers voting to approve the draft, which will then be passed to the cabinet.
The Likud ministers serving on the committee have indicated they will support the current version.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
2 Responses
rabbos machshavos..
It actually could result in a decrease in hareidim serving in the army. If the hareidi yeshivos oppose the law, can call for their students to refuse (meaning mass civil disobedience), it will result in a view that hareidim should refuse serve in the army even in not in yeshiva (the implication of what many Roshei Yeshiva are saying), meaning the many hareidim now serving in the army refuse to serve in the army, and may demand a discharge.
Civil disobedience can be very effective, very disruptive, and often leads to violence.
The hiloni press believes that in ten years, the law will creatge a new status quo in which almost all hareidim will got to the army at age 18, and afterwards will become “normal”. If Jewish history is an indicator, they will probably be wrong.