The Knesset’s legal advisor, Sagit Afik, warned on Tuesday that the coalition’s advancing bill seeking to enshrine Torah Study in the country’s Basic Law could result in haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Torah students – many of whom evade military service – receiving benefits that IDF reservists are eligible for.
Afik made these remarks during a lengthy House Committee meeting intended to advance the bill. At the same meeting, a soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) blasted lawmakers for advancing the legislation, telling them that they were “squabbling like a bunch of little girls who were handed microphones.”
“What is wrong with you? How do you run a country like this?” he shouted, and pointed to 107 veterans also dealing with PTSD.
“My friends sit here every day, and it’s a crime what you’re doing to them – all of you here,” he said. “Every day, they cry. Hugging us in the hallways doesn’t do anything. If I gave each and every one of you the footage from my GoPro of the bodies, you wouldn’t sleep at night.”
The Basic Law: Torah Study bill is part of a proposal that critics argue encourages draft evasion and changes the status of yeshiva students who do not serve, enabling them to continue receiving state benefits. Last week, the bill passed its first of three required readings.
Afik wanted the legislation, in its current form, to ensure that Torah students receive the same academic aid benefits as reservists. She told the panel that it was necessary to fix the outline of the legislation so that the wording was revised to be “declarative in nature.”
The proposal emphasizes that Torah study is “a fundamental value in the heritage of the Jewish people and in the State of Israel.”
Bill calls Torah study 'fundamental value'
It proposes that the country recognize “Torah study as a fundamental value in the State of Israel in order to create a balance of justice in relation to other fundamental values in the state.”
The existing wording, enshrined in the country’s Basic Law, is expected to facilitate the granting of benefits and rights to haredi men who evade service.
There had also been contentious wording in the bill’s proposal that equated those who study Torah with those who serve in the IDF. This comparison has since been removed in the legislation’s new draft.
Critics argue that the legislation could implicitly allow the comparison despite the change in wording.
Lawmakers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition have publicly opposed the legislation and voted against it.
Marathon meetings in the Knesset’s House Committee to fast-track the legislation took place last month after haredi party leaders boycotted coalition voting and disrupted the legislative agenda. These threats were made to pressure Netanyahu’s coalition to rapidly advance a series of haredi-backed bills.
Bill to freeze haredi draft dodger arrests
Another bill being debated in the Knesset on Tuesday proposes to halt the arrests of haredi draft evaders.
Tensions are rising as the coalition races to advance its legislative agenda during the Knesset’s final session, which is expected to end in mid-July, ahead of elections scheduled for no later than October 27.
The Basic Law: Torah Study bill was sponsored by MK Moshe Gafni, of the United Torah Judaism Party, along with other haredi MKs, and had also received government backing ahead of its preliminary reading last month.
After passing its first reading last week by a margin of 63 votes in favor and 53 against, it will continue to be debated in the House Committee before moving forward with its final readings.
Netanyahu arrived at the plenum to vote in favor of the legislation in its first reading.
The IDF, however, has repeatedly warned of an urgent manpower shortage after more than two years of war.