“Yeshiva students will continue postponing [IDF] service [just] as they did in the past. [Who will be classified as a haredi yeshiva student will be left up to the haredi yeshiva heads because] the army cannot measure who is haredi, and who is studying.…If [the haredi] draft quotas aren’t met by 2017, the government will have to decide how to proceed.”
Haredi Draft Starts Tomorrow With Exemptions, Deferrals And Probably Haredi Protests
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Tomorrow, the IDF’s new haredi yeshiva division will start granting full draft exemptions to haredi men 22 years of age or older with the goal of integrating them into the workforce, Ha’aretz reported. It will also issue draft deferments for haredi men between the ages of 18- and 21-years old.
Despite the clear displeasure of Israel’s High Court of Justice, no haredim will actually be drafted against there will until mid-2017 at the earliest, and many argue that new draft law is written in such a way to ensure that the only haredim who will be drafted are those willing to serve in the military or those deemed to expendable by haredi rabbinic leadership.
“Yeshiva students will continue postponing [IDF] service [just] as they did in the past. [Who will be classified as a haredi yeshiva student will be left up to the haredi yeshiva heads because] the army cannot measure who is haredi, and who is studying.…If [the haredi] draft quotas aren’t met by 2017, the government will have to decide how to proceed,” Brig. Gen. Gadi Agmon, the head of planning in the IDF’s personnel directorate reportedly told haredi Kol Barama radio last week.
The IDF has already committed to remove from the new haredi induction center any “missionary” videos or literature meant to extol the virtues of IDF military service after haredi rabbinic and political leaders complained or to make viewing the videos or reading the material optional, and Agmon reportedly reiterated that promise during his Kol Barama appearance.
Even so, the Council of Torah Sages of both the hasidic Agudath Israel faction and of the mainstream non-hasidic Degel HaTorah faction of the United Torah Judaism Party are expected to issue rulings this week ordering all haredi yeshiva students not to report to IDF induction centers to get their draft exemption or deferrals. The rabbis allegedly fear haredim will either abandon yeshiva study for the workforce or, if younger than 22, will be influenced by IDF propaganda and sign up for military service.
Haredi non-hasidic rebel faction leader Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach and the extreme anti-Zionist Edah Haredit haredi umbrella organization both already have a longtime ban on yeshiva students reporting to induction centers.
Auerbach’s faction will likely stage demonstrations soon after the IDF’s new haredi yeshiva division opens tomorrow.