Netanyahu wants to penalize true conscientious objectors alongside haredi draft dodgers.
Benjamin Netanyahu
Netanyahu Muddies The Waters On Haredi Draft Dodging
Shmarya Rosenberg • Failed Messiah.com
The committee charged with creating a replacement to the Tal Law, the law that allowed haredim to dodge the draft and which was ruled unconstitutional by Israel’s High court of Justice in February, is reportedly deadlocked over whether government benefits should be denied to the individual haredim who dodge the draft or whether only haredi yeshivas should be so penalized.
Netanyahu’s backers allegedly added a new twist to the committee’s deliberations by arguing that if haredim who dodge the draft will be penalized financially, non-haredi Israelis who dodge the draft should be so penalized, as well. This would include peace activists and conscientious objectors.
They reportedly raised the issue of non-haredi draft evaders to demonstrate that haredim should not be punished for following an ideology that bars them from serving in the army. The comparison brought condemnations from the left.
A spokesperson for a number of left-wing organizations, Roy Yellin, told the Jerusalem Post that leftists who evade the draft do so legally while those who do so illegally are jailed, saying the call by Netanyahu’s faction was nothing more than an attempt to distract Israelis from Netanyahu’s continuing efforts to find a way to allow all haredim to dodge the draft.
A Peace Now spokesperson was equally blunt.
“If the prime minister wants to present the Left as [draft] refusing, he should first deal with the Right, where there are many more people who have refused to serve since the disengagement from the Gaza Strip,” Peace Now secretary-general Yariv Oppenheimer said, noting, according to the Post, that he opposes refusal to serve on an ideological basis.
Countries often allow those who object to taking life in all circumstances to avoid military service. But those draftees whose opposition is situational – in US terms, those who objected to serving in the Viet Nam War but would have served in WW2 or the Second Gulf War, for example – are frequently imprisoned.
Israeli haredim refuse to be drafted because they believe Torah study is more important than army service, and that the country is protected by their Torah study through spiritual means.
In most legal systems, a theological position like this would not be considered to be legitimate conscientious objection, and its proponents would be imprisoned or otherwise punished for failure to serve – something Netanyahu and his faction certainly know.
Additionally, haredim have dodged the draft for decades while secular and Zionist Orthodox Israelis fought and sometimes died protecting them.
Despite being ruled unconstitutional, the High Court of Justice allowed the Tal Law to remain in effect until its expiration date on July 31 and 11:59:59 pm.
Netanyahu most likely objects to punishing individual haredim who dodge the draft because any coalition he would form after new elections would almost certainly depend on haredi political parties for its majority.