The Council for Military Service Equality, a leading campaign group for national-service draft reform, issued a statement on Monday “to remind the prime minister and the defense minister” that the Tal Law will expire within 48 hours, after which they will have to “begin to draft all 18 year olds into the army,” including from the haredi community.
The Tal Law has provided the legal framework for full-time yeshiva students to defer national service since 2002, but will expire on Wednesday, August 1, with no law to replace it.
This means that the 1949 Law for Security Service – which mandates compulsory military service for all citizens reaching the age of 18 – will be incumbent on yeshiva students as well.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak has said that in light of the failure to replace the Tal Law, the draft would be widened once the law expires to include haredi men “on the basis of preparatory work done by the IDF over the past year to prepare for increased haredi enlistment,” which was requested by the government.
Read the full story