The cabinet decision of Sunday 25 Kislev 5773 to renew a national service program, permitting the draft of 1,300 chareidim into such programs, was not met with applause by all, including the head of The Movement party leader Tzipi Livni, who used the decision to advance here election campaign towards unseating the current administration. “The government’s intention, to bypass the court and perpetuate the historical social wrong is beyond outrageous and has no legal merit” she stated, calling for the draft of draft eligible chareidim into the IDF along with other Israelis.
Livni added “as the election approaches, the government chooses to spit in the face of the Zionist majority, those who serve in the IDF, those who are called for reserve duty time and time again, those who are unwilling to accept the current situation.”
The Yesh Atid party of Yair Lapid responded as well, stating “The government continues to grant a deferment to chareidim under the guise of calling a few of them to national service. This is simply throwing sand in the public’s eye and deceiving the court,” referring to the High Court of Justice decision abolishing the Tal Law, that provided the legal framework for continue yeshiva study instead of military service.
MK Yochanan Plesner of Kadima, who headed the committee seeking to set guidelines to draft chareidim, stated “This is another attempt by the Netanyahu government to perpetuate the chareidi draft dodging, which the High Court of Justice itself said must change.”
Plesner added that while the Tal Law expired months ago, Netanyahu and his administration are seeking to maintain the current status quo instead of compelling chareidim to “share the burden”.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
For those who really want to “serve”, meaning to be eligible to particpate in the zionist “first world” economy, this is a solution that avoid the problems of the army’s inability to integrate hareidi into what is a totally secular institution. However it doesn’t address the issue of non-zionist yeshiva students who will refuse any sort of conscription, and whose resistance has serious implications since most of the western countries that Israel needs support from recognize conscientious objection and will be annoyed if you have widespread protests from people objecting to army service on any sort of religious grounds. A better solution would be to make army service voluntary (as most countries do), and rely on economic incentives to gain recruits.