Knesset faces controversy over IDF reservist age extension amid haredi draft debate

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, chaired by Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, will resume on Monday its preparation of a bill to regulate the highly-charged issue of ultra-Orthodox service in the IDF.

The committee, which began preparing the bill in an introductory session on Tuesday, will discuss the bill twice this week, on Monday and Tuesday. Both are still defined as “introductory” and will be open to media coverage. Once the introductory sessions are done, the committee will hold closed-door hearings that will include information on the IDF’s manpower needs.

Haredim have long been exempt from IDF service, but the legal exemption ended at the end of June 2023 after being deemed unequal and thus unconstitutional. The government since then has refrained from taking the necessary steps to draft the approximately 60,000 haredi men of military age, many of whom study in yeshivot.

Date for the drafting

The government is facing a challenge in the High Court of Justice over its delay in drafting haredim. The hearing was heard in front of an extended bench on June 2, and the High Court’s ruling on the matter will likely be handed down in the near future. The government promised in court to pass a new bill to regulate the issue by the end of the Knesset summer session on July 28.

By and large, most haredi groups view IDF service as a threat to their autonomous lifestyle. The committee must therefore come up with a bill that will on the one hand meet constitutional requirements of equality, and on the other that the haredi parties can swallow.