A team composed of representatives of the ultra-orthodox (haredi) parties and the defense ministry will meet periodically beginning on Monday to renew planning of a new haredi conscription bill, a source confirmed on Thursday.
The decision to form the team was made in a meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the leaders of the haredi parties on Wednesday. Deputy Transportation Minister and Deputy Minister in the prime minister’s office, Uri Maklev, will represent the Lithuanian Degel Hatorah faction; Jerusalem Affairs and Jewish Tradition Minister Meir Porush will represent the hassidic Agudat Yisrael faction; and Shas will be represented by former Knesset member and minister Ariel Atias. The team will also include representatives of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
The team’s goal will be to come up with a formulation of the bill that will decide the thorny issue of haredi conscription to the IDF once and for all. The team, accompanied by legal advisers, will attempt to reach a formulation that will answer the Supreme Court’s reservations regarding inequality. However, if this does not succeed, the committee will include an Override Clause specific to this one bill, which will enable the Knesset to re-legislate it in the event that the Supreme Court strikes it down.
Controversy surrounding the previous haredi conscription law's expiration
Israel’s cabinet on June 25 approved a decision to pass a new haredi conscription bill by March 31, 2024, and to direct the IDF not to draft eligible haredi men until then – even though the previous law expired on June 30, and the state currently has no legal basis to continue not recruiting eligible haredi men.
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel (MQG) appealed to the Supreme Court earlier this month in order to demand that the IDF begin drafting the haredi male population. However, the court accepted the state’s argument that the law gives the IDF 12 months to draft conscripts whose exemption has run out, and therefore there was nothing unlawful about the decision not to immediately begin drafting eligible haredi men.
A central tenet of the legislation will likely be to lower the age of permanent exemption from the current age of 26 to the age of 22.
An attempt to regulate the integration of haredi men into service
The government defined the legislation’s purpose as regulation of the integration into military service, national civil service, and into the workforce, of yeshiva students and graduates of haredi educational institutions, with an emphasis on quality employment.
In order to offset the easing of the ability of haredim to avoid IDF service, the bill will also include “significant” expansion of benefits for mandatory and reserve soldiers, in order to “express gratitude for their service and in order to reduce inequality in service.”
The government will aim to publish an initial version of the bill before the beginning of the Knesset’s winter session on October 15, and bring an updated version to the cabinet’s approval by November 10. The bill will pass into law by the end of the winter session, on March 31, 2024.
Haredi parties must reevaluate their approach in order to prevent a repeat of the past
The law that expired at the end of June, which passed in 2014 and was amended in 2015, set allotments of haredi draftees to the IDF per year and sanctioned yeshivot that did not meet these allotments.
In September 2017, the Supreme Court deemed the bill unconstitutional, since the exemption it gave was ruled to be too sweeping and thus violated the notion of equality. The court initially gave the Knesset a year to amend the bill, but this was delayed 15 times due to the recurring elections since then.
The haredi parties initially demanded a sweeping Override Clause to ensure that it will be able to prevent another situation in which the Supreme Court strikes down legislation regarding haredi conscription. However, recent haredi publications such as the Lithuanian mouthpiece Yated Ne’eman have called on the haredi politicians to recalculate their position in order to avoid drawing fire from the protest organizations. The coalition will therefore first attempt to reach a solution without an Override Clause, and if necessary, will only revert to a limited override on this specific issue.