The Ministerial Law Committee on Sunday 23 Marcheshvan toppled a bill that sought to extend the military service of Yeshivot Hesder soldiers. The bill was presented by MK (Labor) Omer Bar-Lev, claiming that since hesder students spend less time in actual IDF service than anyone else, the arrangement is discriminatory and must be changed to reflect the recent government effort referred to as ‘sharing the burden’, the drafting of chareidi talmidei yeshivos.

The bill did not seek to extend hesder service from its current 17 months to 36 months, the regular service for male soldiers, but to extend it to 24 months. The bill was met by strong objections from the dati leumi Bayit Yehudi party.

While Yesh Atid has been outspoken on the sharing the burden matter, it voted against the bill as did all other ministers on the committee. It appears Yesh Atid had to support Bayit Yehudi on this bill to gain the dati leumi party’s support on Yesh Atid legislation.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)