Likud’s response on Tuesday to the High Court’s ruling that the government can no longer refrain from conscripting Haredi members into the IDF contained several misleading claims and raised questions about whether the government intends to significantly increase the Haredi conscription pool.
Likud, the largest party in the ruling coalition, responded by saying, “The real solution to the draft issue lies not in the short-term High Court ruling, but in completing the historic draft bill, which is currently being prepared for second and third reading in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.”
Likud: Strange that Supreme Court now intervenes in Haredi conscription
“It is odd that the High Court, which for 76 years has avoided forcing yeshiva students to serve in the IDF, would do so especially on the eve of the completion of a historic conscription bill and at a time when recent Haredi conscription figures are at an all-time high,” the Likud party said.
“This bill was drafted by the defense authorities. [MK] “Benny Gantz is defense minister and he passed the bill’s first reading with the support of Bennett, Lapid and Lieberman. But now Bennett, Lapid, Lieberman and Gantz are suddenly opposing the bill because they are interested in toppling the government, not drafting Haredim,” Likud said.
“Contrary to their claims, the bill takes into account and prepares for war scenarios and, in any case, includes necessary changes for the current situation,” Likud said.
“This bill significantly increases conscription rates for Haredi sects, establishes institutional sanctions for failure to meet quotas, and recognizes the importance of Torah study,” Likud concluded.
Will the government pass the bill by the July 28th deadline?
The FADC does have a bill in the works, but it will be weeks or months before it becomes law. The government promised at a High Court hearing on June 2 that the bill would be ready by the end of the Knesset’s summer session on July 28, but work is currently moving at a slow pace and there is no guarantee the bill will be passed by then.
Moreover, opposition lawmakers, the attorney general’s office, the Defense Ministry, and even several coalition ministers and members of parliament have pointed out that the bill currently under consideration by the FADC is irrelevant to the IDF’s needs after October 7. For example, the bill stipulates that the share of Haredim among each military service graduate will gradually increase from less than 10 percent today to 35 percent by 2035.
However, according to IDF estimates, that number would reportedly need to reach 50 percent within five years to meet the IDF’s needs.
Moreover, the bill only applies “institutional sanctions,” not individual sanctions. That is, yeshiva students would be sanctioned if they did not meet IDF quotas, but no sanctions would be applied to actual draft evaders. The general belief is that institutional sanctions are ineffective in forcing individual Haredim to enlist in recruitment centers.
