Jerusalem – The government will try to pass a new law to increase haredi enlistment in the IDF by August 15, the state declared Thursday in a response to the High Court of Justice.
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The state’s declaration came in response to a number of petitions to the High Court calling for the immediate drafting of the approximately 40,000 yeshiva students who are no longer legally exempted from military service. Other petitions have demanded that all subsidies to yeshivot that serve haredim who have avoided being drafted be halted.
The Tal Law, which was enacted in 2002, allowed full time yeshiva students to indefinitely postpone their military service.
But following the expiration of the Tal Law on July 31, 2012, the only operative law regarding military service for yeshiva students is that which applies to all other Jewish Israelis of military age, the Law for the Security Services 1986, which stipulates mandatory military service for everyone of military age.
The state has claimed however that it need not draft yeshiva students at this stage since legislation is currently making its way through the Knesset to address the issue, albeit in a gradual manner.
The state pointed out on Thursday that the cabinet and the Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved a bill to draft haredim into the army by 2017 on Sunday.
The bill is now expected to come to the Knesset for its first reading next Wednesday after which it passes to a special committee headed by Bayit Yehudi MK Ayelet Shaked for further deliberation.
The state asked that all requests to the High Court on the matter be postponed until after the August 15 deadline
Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post