Knesset defense committee to resume haredi draft bill debate with classified meeting

The Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee (FADC) will convene on Monday for a classified meeting to discuss the IDF’s manpower needs, as part of the effort to formulate a new law to regulate ultra-Orthodox (haredi) service in the IDF.

The debates began on June 18, and the three sessions held since then largely included opening statements by MKs and civilian organizations that have dealt with the haredi draft issue. The classified session on Monday will be attended by Maj.-Gen. Yaniv Asor, head of the IDF’s Personnel Directorate.

Meanwhile, discussions on the haredi draft bill between the prime minister’s office and leaders of the haredi parties have been ongoing for months and may lead to a compromise that will later be introduced to the FADC..

The ins and outs of the bill

The debates will be held against the backdrop of the High Court of Justice ruling on Tuesday, which reaffirmed the illegality of the haredi exemption and instructed the state to begin eligible military-age haredi men. The court also ruled that yeshivas could no longer receive state funding for military-age students who did not report for military service.

Finance Ministry legal advisor Asi Messing reportedly argued in an internal legal opinion that military-age haredi men who did not report for service will no longer qualify for social benefits, such as social security payment reductions and a stipend for daycare costs. If this opinion is adopted by Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara, this could lead to families losing thousands of shekels per month and could catalyze a rise in haredi draftees.

In the meantime, haredi politicians continued to criticize the ruling. According to a source from one of the haredi parties, rather than increase military service, the loss of funding will lead haredim to seek donations from abroad, which will lead to further isolation between haredim and the general public.

Shas chairman MK Aryeh Deri visited with one of the party’s leading spiritual leaders, Rabbi Moshe Maya, on Wednesday evening, to discuss what the party said was “the High Court ruling against the status of yeshiva students, and the severe harm to the yeshivot and independence of the educational systems.” Maya on Tuesday criticized the High Court ruling and said that no haredim should join the IDF, even those who do not study Torah full time.

Many haredi publications on Wednesday and Thursday also criticized the ruling. An editorial in the popular Hamodia daily, for example, argued that the ruling has effectively “torn apart” haredim from the rest of Israeli society. The editorial said that the positive side was that it was the High Court who led to this tear, and not the haredi society itself.