"In accordance with the [haredi] draft bill, thousands of orders to
recruit yeshiva students who were born in 1994-1995 were issued, as the
first ones were ordered to appear starting August 18.…[If left unchanged
and not postponed, the draft bill would] radically change the legal
status [of haredim – i.e., it would make haredi yeshiva students who
dodge the draft as their rabbis have ordered them to do criminals, and
therefore] the state is considering postponing their mandatory
enlistment.…A policy by which these students are drafted is at this
point incompatible with the bill [because haredim are refusing to abide
by that law] and might even jeopardize governmental efforts to regulate
the issue [in the future]."
Above: right, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon; left, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; both of the Likud faction of the Likud-Beiteinu Party
Government Wants To Postpone Haredi Draft Because Haredim Will Dodge It Anyway, Likud Defense Minister Says
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon wants to postpone drafting thousands of haredi yeshiva students, Ynet reported today.
The postponement would most likely be ruled to be in violation of a High Court of Justice ruling.
"In accordance with the [haredi] draft bill, thousands of orders to recruit yeshiva students who were born in 1994-1995 were issued, as the first ones were ordered to appear starting August 18.…[If left unchanged and not postponed, the draft bill would] radically change the legal status [of haredim – i.e., it would make haredi yeshiva students who dodge the draft as their rabbis have ordered them to do criminals, and therefore] the state is considering postponing their mandatory enlistment.…A policy by which these students are drafted is at this point incompatible with the bill [because haredim are refusing to abide by that law] and might even jeopardize governmental efforts to regulate the issue,” Ya’alon’s Defense Ministry reportedly said in a prepared statement.
The State was responding to petitions filed with the High Court of Justice after the Tal Law that exempted haredi yeshiva students from military service was mandated to expire by the High Court. Those petitions demanded that the state draft haredi yeshiva students immediately. If not, because there was no legal basis to continue the blanket haredi yeshiva students draft exemption, the petitioners demanded that the state immediately cease funding, including stipends, that it now pays to 54,000 haredi yeshiva students and their yeshivas.
“Postponing the recruitment…will be in complete opposition to previous High Court rulings. It will be a decision that is not worth the paper on which it is printed and it would be best if Ya'alon decided against postponement,” an attorney for one of the petitioners reportedly said.
Ya’alon, who is a senior member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Knesset faction, has worked tirelessly to scuttle the haredi draft and recently tried to see that the new draft bill would still allow haredim to dodge the draft. Ya'alon did this by attemptiing to strip the bill of all criminal and financial penalities for doing so.
Haredi political parties are the Likud-Beiteinu Party’s only natural Knesset allies and are needed if Netanyahu – or another Likud leader like Ya’alon – tries to form a new government.
The Likud faction views both of the party’s current senior coalition partners, Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid Party and Naftali Bennett’s HaBayit HaYehudai Party, as rivals – not as allies.
Netanyahu has spent much of the past decade appeasing haredi leaders and ignoring rampant haredi crimes like housing fraud, yeshiva stipend fraud and illegal transfers of state money to haredi institutions. He also did little to stop haredi harassment of women in public spaces and public buses until then rival Tzipi Livni made it her signature issue. Before that, Netanyahu’s government did little to enforce the law, and repeatedly skirted High Court of Justice rulings on that and related issues.