Ultra-Orthodox parties refuse draft compromise
At present, tens of thousands of Charedi men either avoid working or work off the books, due to fear of being drafted and losing special government stipends paid out to exempted yeshivah students younger than 26.
(TIMES OF ISRAEL) – Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox parties are reportedly refusing to compromise on a bill that would exempt yeshivah students from military service, despite the requests of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to Hebrew media reports, Netanyahu spoke on Sunday with United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf and Shas chairman Aryeh Deri to negotiate a “softer” version of the proposed bill.
According to Haaretz, Goldknopf refused to budge, while Deri tried to reach a compromise or delay the legislation.
Netanyahu’s Likud party denied the reports in a late-night statement that said the Prime Minister did not meet or speak to the ultra-Orthodox party leaders on Sunday.
When the former law that effectively exempted ultra-Orthodox men from military service expired in June, the government nevertheless ordered the IDF to not draft yeshivah students until March.
The planned bill, which the coalition plans on advancing during the Knesset’s upcoming winter session, would lower the age of draft exemption to 21. Currently, ultra-Orthodox men must study in a yeshivah and are forbidden from working until the age of 26, in order to receive a draft exemption.
Furthermore, the bill is expected to be passed in the form of a Basic Law, thereby making it seemingly immune to judicial review.
While Basic Laws can generally be passed without any special majority, they enjoy a special standing and are seen to make up the closest thing Israel has to a constitution. They can still be reviewed by the judiciary, but there is no precedent for the striking down of a Basic Law by the High Court of Justice.
A key reason why the two ultra-Orthodox parties have been among the biggest proponents of the government’s judicial overhaul has been their desire to prevent the High Court from interfering in this specific piece of legislation. But rather than just passing the draft exemption bill as a Basic Law, they have aggressively backed legislating an override clause, which would allow the Knesset to overrule court decisions.
Netanyahu told US media that he would bar the coalition from passing a bill that would allow the Knesset to override court decisions with a majority of just 61 MKs, but he has avoided ruling out less extreme versions of an override clause, and the ultra-Orthodox parties insist that the measure is essential to their continued presence in the government.
In a 2017 ruling, the High Court of Justice invalidated the current conscription law, which gave sweeping exemptions to full-time religious scholars. It gave the government multiple deadlines and extensions for legislation of a new enlistment law and allowed the Defence Ministry to rely upon the struck-down law until a replacement is passed.
At present, tens of thousands of Charedi men either avoid working or work off the books, due to fear of being drafted and losing special government stipends paid out to exempted yeshivah students younger than 26.
The initiative is likely to anger many secular Israelis seeking greater participation by army-age Charedi men in national service.
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