United Torah Judaism Party MK Rabbi Meir Porush was even more
blunt in his criticism, reportedly calling the government’s newly
tweaked proposal for a law drafting haredim a "miserable bill designed
to crush the world of Torah.…The future of our existence is in
danger. There should be Knesset committees to reform the secular
education [system], which creates criminals and murderers, rather than
recruiting yeshiva scholars for army service,” Porush said.
MK Rabbi Meir Porush
Proposed Bill To Draft Haredim Into Israel’s Military “Designed To Crush The World Of Torah,” Haredi MK Says
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
"The enlistment reform bill [that will draft most haredim into the military] is detached from reality and will not be implemented…Whoever talks about limiting the number of those who study the Torah [full time in haredi yeshivas] and setting [restrictive] quotas on the number of iluim [prodigies] who are exempt from military service is being ignorant about this sensitive and delicate issue, as well as condescending and patronizing,” haredi MK and former Deputy Health Minister Rabbi Yaakov Litzman said yesterday, Ynet reported.
“[Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Religious Services Minister Naftali Bennett] want to limit the footsteps of a great and central public of observant Jews and disguise it with concern for equal [sharing of Israel’s defense] burden. In every generation we have protected Torah scholars, and also today [despite Lapid and Bennett]there will not be a situation in which a person who wants to study Torah in Israel will find himself jailed or fined,” Litzman added.
Litzman’s fellow United Torah Judaism Party member MK Rabbi Meir Porush was even more blunt in his criticism, reportedly calling the government’s newly tweaked proposal for a law drafting haredim a "miserable bill designed to crush the world of Torah."
"The future of our existence is in danger. There should be Knesset committees to reform the secular education [system], which creates criminals and murderers, rather than recruiting yeshiva scholars for army service,” Porush added.
The Forum for the Promotion of Equal Share in the [Defense] Burden also criticized the newly tweaked proposal, which does not immediately draft all haredim, even though a High Court of Justice ruling found that blanket draft exemptions of haredim are illegal and essentially mandated a universal military draft.
“Yair Lapid is about to [miss a historic opportunity]. Instead of recruiting haredim immediately as mandated by the High Court of Justice, we are looking at an abstract service in three years, when another government will be in office and the law will become null and void [as a result].…What reason is there to postpone implementation by three years, apart from the fear of dealing with the real issue head on? If the Lapid proposal passes, then the unequal share of the burden will increase immediately, since tens of thousands of haredim who have not contributed a thing to the country will go out to the workforce, and dramatically hurt those who do serve the country. If these are indeed the Peri Committee conclusions, then we will go back to the streets and remind Lapid of what he himself said in our protests only a year ago,” the Forum reportedly said.
The bill exempts 1,800 Torah “prodigies” annually from military service.
It plans to draft 65% of haredim at the age of 21 after a 3-year transition period to phase in the draft.
It also contains financial penalties for haredi yeshivas whose students dodge the draft.