Just one day before the final deadline for the government to inform the High Court of Justice on its plans to draft military-age haredi men, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Wednesday that he had decided to advance the haredi conscription law that initially passed its first reading during the Lapid-Bennett government.
Netanyahu’s office said the law will be brought to the Ministerial Committee for Legislative Affairs today.
Despite Israel’s significant changes on October 7, Prime Minister Netanyahu is focusing on 2022. This contrast in timelines underscores the political games played by this coalition.
The bill that passed its first reading in 2022 was not just about the haredi conscription law. It was intended as the foundation for a broad “Israeli Service Plan,” which would require all sectors of Israeli society to conduct national service of some form. This context is crucial to understanding the implications of the haredi conscription law.
In August 2022, the government – headed at the time by Naftali Bennett – approved a temporary service outline proposed by Gantz, who at the time was defense minister. The outline, which was not meant to be long-lasting, included lowering the conscription exemption age for the ultra-Orthodox to 21, but for only two years.
According to the outline, a 21-year-old haredi could join the national emergency and rescue services and receive vocational training.
This would allow the haredi community to integrate into the employment market and acquire a profession, as well as increase the number of haredi recruits.
According to the proposal, the exemption age would rise to 22 after two years and then to 23 a year later. The bill established recruitment targets, according to which financial sanctions can be imposed on a yeshiva – but not on the young people who do not enlist – if they do not meet them.
A gradual process of sanctioning yeshivas
The yeshiva sanctions would be gradual: First, a 20% budget reduction, followed by a more significant cut only after several consecutive years of not meeting the goals. According to the proposal, the yeshiva’s recruitment target would be 15% until 2026, after which it would increase to 20% and from 2030 to 25%. Starting in 2036, the recruitment target would rise to 35%.
The proposal specifies two recruitment routes for the haredi community to join the IDF: a three-week shortened service or a three-month service, after which the soldiers transfer to reserve service.
Netanyahu is wasting time with this move. He is playing a game. On the one hand, the High Court will not be on his back about meeting the haredi draft bill deadline. On the other hand, he is attempting to prevent criticism from the government’s opponents by taking the previous government’s proposal – the government led by the Center and Left – and making it his own. It is simply a ploy to buy more time.
The problem is that this proposal was always meant to be a temporary solution until something longer-term could be done to bring the haredi community into some form of national service, whether that be in Israel’s security forces or in some other way that serves the country’s needs – needs that are prominent now amid war – more than ever.
“The law you are bringing is not the outline of the service I led in the previous government, it is not the outline of the service I asked to promote in the current Knesset, and it certainly does not reflect the security needs of the State of Israel after October 7,” Gantz said shortly after the prime minister’s announcement. “After October 7, the IDF needs soldiers; the State of Israel needs people serving, not political tricks. If you continue on this path, you may solve a political problem, but the State of Israel will remain with the full force of the problems of national service and fairness.”
Indeed, what is needed is a decision – a proper decision, with no room for more deliberations or cop-outs.
This is not the time for games. We are at war, and Israel needs its soldiers. Netanyahu: Stop playing tricks and get the job done; get Israel what it needs: people on the ground.