Gov’t to vote on new haredi conscription plan as coalition teeters

The government will vote on a proposed decision to advance a new bill concerning the need to draft haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) into the IDF on Tuesday, as both members of the Likud and of the opposition expressed opposition on Monday to the proposed decision.

According to a draft of the government decision shared by Ynet on Monday, the decision will obligate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to develop a bill that will integrate haredim into the military and national service.

According to the draft, the bill will need to include annual enlistment quotas which will “reflect a significant and gradual increase in the rate of enlistment” among haredim compared to the current rate of enlistment.

The bill will also include “positive and negative financial incentives for meeting or not meeting the annual recruitment quotas.” The incentives would include limiting the financial support for haredi educational institutions.

The decision does not say when the negative financial incentives or sanctions would be implemented nor how they would be enforced.

While a former version of the proposal included an intention to set the age of exemption for yeshiva students at 34 years old – meaning that yeshiva students would be unable to work until the age of 34 – that detail was removed from the draft version on Monday. Earlier versions of the bill also reportedly included a requirement that economic sanctions would only begin in 2027.

The draft version of the decision also noted that the possible effects of the decision on the economy are “irrelevant” and that it would have “no effect” on the status of the military’s manpower.

The bill will need to be presented to the public by April 21, approved by the government by May 19, and placed before the Knesset for a vote by May 22. The law must be passed by the Knesset in its final form by June 30.

Unlike past laws on the subject, the bill will not be allowed to be presented as a temporary order that will expire. Temporary orders have more lenient requirements than permanent laws.

If one of the deadlines set in the decision isn’t met, haredim will be immediately drafted like any other Israeli. The decision includes a directive for the defense minister to prepare for that possibility.

Draft decision draws ire from both Gantz and Haredim

Minister-without-portfolio Benny Gantz reiterated a threat that he would leave the government if a stricter bill for drafting Haredim was not advanced on Monday during a press conference in northern Israel.

“It is inconceivable that precisely while the entirety of Israeli society is mobilized and making an effort for our home, the government will promote a law that crumbles its foundations,” said Gantz. “We in the National Unity party see the importance of preserving tradition and learning the Torah, and alongside this importance, we have placed a clear outline of service that includes the establishment of an administration, quotas, targets, financial sanctions, as well as service incentives.”

“We want agreements – but those that will bring a fair solution to recruitment for the service of all. We want a solution for recruitment, not an exemption from recruitment,” added Gantz. ”I repeat – promotion and enactment of a law such as the government intends to pass will harm unity and harm security, therefore this is a red line. My friends and I cannot be part of a government that passes such a law at all, and especially during wartime.”

Gantz is demanding that any decision on the issue of drafting haredim include a limit on the number of haredim who can get an exemption from the draft to stay in yeshiva. The haredim are opposed to such a requirement.

National Unity party MK Sharren Haskel told 103FM on Monday that “as it seems right now, next week we will already be out of the government.” Fellow party member Ze’ev Elkin noted as well that “the draft conscription law is bad, it will not advance anything and will take us backwards economically. As things stand, we will find ourselves outside the government in the coming days,” in an interview with KAN Reshet Bet radio.

Some haredi members of the government are also unhappy with the proposed decision, with KAN news reporting on Monday that Jerusalem Affairs and Jewish Heritage Minister Meir Porush (United Torah Judaism) and Construction and Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf (UTJ) may vote against or abstain from the vote on Tuesday.

Several members of the Likud, including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are also opposed to the proposed government decision. Gallant will not be present at the vote as he is visiting the US.

The Knesset has tried repeatedly in the past two decades to pass laws that would increase enlistment among haredim.

In 2002, the Knesset passed the Tal Law, which established the requirements haredi yeshiva students would need to meet in order to receive an exemption from IDF service. The law was shot down by the High Court of Justice in 2012 as the court determined that it did not lead to an equal sharing of the burden of military service in Israeli society and violates the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty.

In 2014, the Knesset passed another law, which included quotas for the enlistment of haredim and criminal sanctions against those who evade service, as well as a limit on the number of yeshiva students who can receive full exemptions from military service. The law was amended in 2015 to have the quotas set by the government and not by law and extended the “grace period” in which exemptions could still be issued. The 2015 amendment was struck down by the High Court of Justice in 2017 for violating the principle of equality as it did not change the situation concerning the enlistment of haredim.

Activists express outrage at proposed government decision

The Yom Kippur [War] Veterans group announced that they would hold a protest outside the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, saying “The law that will be submitted for government approval is a shady political deal that will perpetuate the draft dodging.”

“Today it is already clear that recruiting haredim is a national security necessity. The government of failures, which has lost the people’s trust, undermines security, and spits in the faces of the service members in order to please haredim hustlers,” added the protest group.

On Monday evening, the “Miluimnikim” protest group projected a “mourning notice” for the “People’s Army” on the headquarters of the Likud Party. The notice states that the “funeral” will take place at the cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

The Brothers in Arms protest movement referred to the decision by the government to remove the section raising the age of exemption to 35 from the draft on Monday, saying “The well-known tricks and shtick of those who have lost all the values that reflect the identity of the Zionist state are already known to the whole public. Netanyahu continues his clearance sale of the State of Israel, when the only value he sanctifies is political survival through the neglect of the IDF soldiers, the reservists, and the public who bear the burden.”

“The bottom line is there is no conscription obligation, no conscription targets, and no criminal sanctions for haredim who do not enlist. What exists is more of Netanyahu’s method. If the government approves the law, every Zionist Israeli anxious for the future of the homeland must take to the streets. What was will not be.”

Yohanan Plesner, the president of the Israel Democracy Institute, and Dr. Gilad Malach, director of the Ultra-Orthodox in Israel program at IDI, stated on Monday that the initial decision to raise the age of exemption to 35 was a “red herring” that from the beginning was going to be taken out of the final plan.

The two added that “the current version of the law not only will not result in the recruitment of haredim, but returns again to a failed outline of implementing recruitment targets, which has been tried for 20 years and the results of which are in front of us. In the meantime, the war continues, the army is hungry for additional personnel, while the ‘dealers’ celebrate, as if it were not October 7th, instead of providing a real answer to the needs of the hour.”

The researchers stressed that without significant and immediate economic sanctions there will not be a significant increase in enlistment among haredim. “Not in two years and not in three, but today,” said the Plesner and Malach. The researchers stated that any new bill should conscript everyone, with at most only a limited quota of outstanding Torah students who can receive an exemption, and include significant economic and administrative sanctions against draft dodgers.