Saar Shalom Jerbi, the head of Israel’s national civilian service programs staffed primarily by Zionist Orthodox girls who join them in lieu of serving in the military, has finally released the official number of haredi males who joined national civilian service in lieu of the IDF. And the number shows, as FailedMessiah.com previously reported, that the government's claims of increased haredi participation were lies.
Only 300 ‘Haredim’ Joined Israel’s National Civilian Service Programs This Year
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Saar Shalom Jerbi, the head of Israel’s national civilian service programs staffed primarily by Zionist Orthodox girls who join them in lieu of serving in the military, has finally released the official number of haredi males who joined national civilian service in lieu of the IDF.
The government claimed that thousands of haredim would join the national civilian service and then mainstream into Israeli society after that. The government's Shaked Committee which wrote Israel’s new military draft law even claimed that 1,500 haredim joined national civilian service programs this year – a number FailedMessiah.com reported was false.
And now Jerbi has reportedly confirmed what impartial observers feared – the actual number of haredim who joined the national civilian service this year is 300 – only 20% of the number claimed by Shaked, of the right-wing Zionist Orthodox HaBayit HaYehudi Party and her Likud and Yesh Atid colleagues claimed.
According to Jerbi, as a part of the national civilian service a total of only 7 haredim joined Israel Police and 1 (!) joined the Israel Prison Authority, and the rest of the national civilian service programs showed similar dismal results.
The IDF and government persist in counting ex-haredim, ba’al teshuvas, right-wing Zionist Orthodox, and people who went to Sefardi haredi schools but whose own families and they themselves are not haredi (or often even Orthodox) as haredim for the purpose of these counts and the draft law.
Many of those 300 ‘haredim’ who supposedly joined the national civilian service likely fit into these categories rather than being actual haredi yeshiva students. And at the same time and for the same reasons, almost no actual haredim joined the IDF.
Shaked reportedly said the figures are worrisome, but accepted no responsibility for her role in creating them by crafting a law that essentially allows haredim to dodge the draft and dodge national civilian service with impunity until late 2017, at which time it is likely further dodges will be put in place to allow haredim to continue to refuse to serve the country or work for a living.
Shaked reportedly asked haredi committee member Member of Knesset Rabbi Meir Porush from the Ashkenazi haredi United Torah Judaism Party what could be done to get more haredim to join.
Porush – who like all haredi party MKs opposes any mandatory (and, frankly, almost all voluntary) civilian national service or IDF service for haredim – reportedly answered by saying that it is time to change the government.