According to Israeli media, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Minister without Commission Benny Gantz expressed outrage on Monday over the government’s response to efforts to approve a law restricting military conscription for Haredim.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to push through a revised conscription law pushed under the previous government of Prime Minister Gantz in 2022. Gantz opposes the move, arguing that the bill was already only a stopgap measure when it was first proposed and that it now does not adequately address the security needs of the State of Israel.
On Monday, the cabinet rejected an appeal by Gantz’s National Unity Party to block Netanyahu’s plan to push ahead with the old outline. Within two weeks, the government will ask the Knesset to apply the continuity principle to the bill and put it to a vote. If the Knesset decides to apply the continuity principle, the process of approving the bill will continue as if it had not been stopped by the previous government.
Haredi ministers did not take part in Monday’s vote to reject the appeal. Gallant opposed the appeal but also opposed moving forward with the bill in its current form.
“I am not going to take part in this political circus. I do not accept political appeals, just as I do not accept the application of the law of political continuity. Instead of governments spending hours trying to reach an agreement for soldiers, we are sitting here for hours arguing for voters,” Gallant said during the meeting, according to Israeli media. “You all seem to have forgotten what the unity government was formed for, so let me remind you: for war, not for elections.”
“Politics takes precedence over Israel’s security”
Gantz expressed indignation at the decision to push ahead with the bill in its current form, saying “today’s debate is painful evidence that among government ministers, politics takes precedence over Israel’s security.”
“Instead of recruiting for military service, they are buying time. Instead of joining a war, they are meeting to consider coalitions. This law will not pass the Knesset, it will not pass the High Court and most importantly it will not be approved by the people. The prime minister is responsible for this security violation,” Gantz said.
Attorney General: Government carrying out ‘quiet judicial reform’
On Monday, Attorney General Gali Baharav Miara stressed that once the final bill expires in June 2023, the government will no longer have a legal basis not to conscript Haredi yeshiva students.
“In the absence of a law, giving different treatment to yeshiva members appointed to the service goes against the principle of equality and is unconstitutional,” Baharav Miara warned.
The Attorney General added that the government had passed a resolution to give it more time to find a solution to the bill, and that the resolution was approved on two conditions: first, that a new law be enacted by the summer of 2024; and second, that a new law be enacted that adequately addresses the equality issues in the bill.
“The reality is that after the war the needs of the military have increased significantly, the expenditure of the economy has ballooned and the burden on servicemen has increased dramatically. We have therefore made it clear that it is not possible to proceed with government legislation on the issue of equal sharing of the burden,” he said. [of military service] Without taking into account the position of the defense authorities and the military or their needs,” Baharav-Miara stressed.
“Specialist legal counsel cannot protect from a legal standpoint a situation in which the government, on the one hand, is increasing the burden on military personnel and intensifying the violation of equality rights, and, on the other hand, is pushing ahead with government legislation that is not based on current security and economic data,” the attorney general added.
Baharav-Miara stressed that he does not and will not support the government’s attempt to circumvent the High Court’s interim order that froze financial support for yeshivas for students dodging the draft.
“From here, things quickly developed, or should I say, got worse,” the attorney general said, noting that the government had asked her to be removed from handling the conscription issue.
“In other words, the Israeli government has sought to alienate the guardians of law and order and eliminate the legal adviser’s ability to act as a check on government power and uphold the rule of law,” Bahrav Miara said. “It is not for nothing that I say that this course of action by the government is a continuation of ‘judicial reform.'”
“Judicial reforms were designed to remove checks and balances from government power and undermine existing guarantees for maintaining the rule of law and good administration.”
The Attorney General warned that the government’s decision to appoint a private lawyer, rather than the Attorney General, to oversee new conscription laws creates a situation in which lawyers in “positions of trust” who are dependent on the people they are supposed to oversee are responsible for complex government matters.
“Attempts to neutralise checks on government power, not by legislation but by dismantling normal and proper ways of conducting business, can be called ‘quiet reforms,'” Baharav Meara said. “The economic, social, security and democratic costs of the absence of rule of law are high, so our role is to shine a spotlight on a hidden phenomenon.”
