The Camp Sucker movement demanding haredi enlistment in the army has pitched its
tents once again, this time in front of the house of Defense Minister Ehud
Barak, to demand that he present and implement a temporary plan to draft
ultra-Orthodox men into the IDF.
The “Tal Law,” which until now provided
the legal framework for full-time yeshiva students to indefinitely defer
military service, expired on August 1 and the Knesset failed to pass new
legislation before the summer recess.
The Defense and Security Law of
1986, which became incumbent on yeshiva students following the Tal Law’s
expiration, requires all Jewish males to report for service upon reaching the
age of 18.
Unless the Defense Ministry demonstrates that it is working on
drafting haredi men, it could be considered to be breaking the law.
To
forestall such a situation, Barak announced on August 1 that he had instructed
the IDF to draw up within 30 days a “practical proposal” for the implementation
of the 1986 law for haredi men which should, in theory, be used by the Defense
Ministry and the army until the Knesset approves new legislation to replace the
Tal Law.
Officials in the Defense Ministry told The Jerusalem Post that
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen Benny Gantz was scheduled to present the temporary
plan to Barak on Thursday afternoon.
Idan Miller, one of the campaign
leaders, said that if Barak had not yet formed a plan, the IDF draft reform
movement had one ready and waiting, which they based on proposals made by the
army to the Plesner Committee that attempted to formulate new legislation to
replace the Tal Law during the last Knesset session.
Miller said that the
plan proposed that a total of 3,000 haredi men of military age be drafted within
the next 12 months into five new battalions to be set up specifically for
ultra-Orthodox men.
The new units would comprise three new infantry
battalions similar to the Nahal Haredi battalion already in existence, an
armored battalion and an Iron Dome rocket-defense battalion.
Miller said
that the Shahar program in which haredi men are placed in hi-tech positions in
the air force and intelligence units could be tripled in size to accommodate
more recruits.
He added that, according to the army, the cost of one
haredi battalion would be offset within a year by savings made by not utilizing
reserve units that would otherwise be required.
“Despite the fact that
the prime minister ran away from his responsibilities and sold out, as usual,
the Israeli public to the haredi leadership for the sake of his political
survival, we are still confident that the IDF will not miss this historic
opportunity and immediately initiate a process of establishing special
frameworks that will enable the integration of haredim into its ranks,” Miller
said.
He added that if the Defense Ministry does not begin the process of
drafting haredim, the draft reform campaign would start submitting a series of
petitions to the High Court of Justice “in order to enforce the [1986] law which
went into force on August 1 requiring service for all.”