Housing Minister (Bayit Yehudi) Uri Ariel spoke to Knesset TV on a number of issues. He focused on his position regarding the share the burden chareidi draft law. Ariel remains adamantly opposed to holding talmidim who do not comply criminally responsible. He points out that he consulted with experts in the State Attorney General’s Office and yes, the law permits imposing administrative sanctions instead of criminal sanctions without stepping out of the parameters of the Supreme Court ruling.
Ariel explains that he does not understand Yesh Atid, which in this case is clearly breaking with coalition agreements. He admits that while the parties have partnered, they often have different visions and goals and generally speaking, agreement can be reached through mutual compromise.
With a grin on his face the minister stated he remains confident that the bill will be changed to reflect his vision, administrative consequences instead of criminal as it passes through the ministerial committee headed by party colleague Ayelet Shaked. Ariel points out the bill must also pass three Knesset readings.
Regarding hesder talmidim, he feels comfortable with hesder serving less than chareidim, defending this reality. Ariel states these talmidim have been serving for decades and the hesder yeshivot and program have proven themselves, awarded the Israel Prize and praised by many prime ministers, including Yitzchak
Rabin and Yitzchak Shamir. He points out that many many hesder talmidim do serve 24 months as they opt for officers training or other command courses demanding an additional commitment.
Ariel explains that from a conceptual point of view, a government may not impose sanctions on a large portion of an entire population sector, in this case the chareidim, and therefore, he is confident that ultimately, the criminal sanctions clause will be replaced with administrative sanctions for non-compliance with the new draft law.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
Any administrative sanctions will either be meaningless (e.g. denial of permission to travel to India on vacation, not allowed to apply to Hebrew University, etc.) or punitive (banned from using national health insurance). At current they ban yeshiva students from holding gainful employment, so that doesn’t seem to be a smart “sanction”. They also run into a equal protection issue if they sanction hareidim but not Arabs, which also poses a legal problem (e.g. giving child allowances to children of convicted terrorists, but not to children of kollel families).
We aren’t going to the army PERIOD. Talk, write, discuss, do what you want, we will continue learning torah. We will go to jail, leave the country and d anything but join the army
Open your eyes look into your background and future,
who has kept aboard in the worst of history if not the chareidim, how many non chareidim vanished and became GOYIM, what happened with most chareidim that entered the army didn’t they come out less of a chareidy, isn’t that the intension of most army personal to do their utmost to even force chareidim to drop their strict chareidy values,
Now with Iran Hizbulah and Syria, are you readying for
G-D’s help or fighting G-D ???
Open your eyes before its too late.