Ultra-Orthodox Jews stage a demonstration in protest at mandatory military service in Jerusalem, 23 May 2024. [Getty]
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is determined – “perhaps more than ever” – to pass controversial legislation that would exempt most draft-age Haredi Jews from conscription, sources close to the prime minister have told Haaretz.
Netanyahu’s government has watered down long-standing plans to make ultra-Orthodox Jews subject to compulsory military service amid fears that religious parties could withdraw from the governing coalition.
The legislation would now allow full-time Haredi yeshiva students to dodge the draft, drawing criticism from opposition parties and military chiefs as the army comes under strain from years of fighting multi-front wars.
Haaretz’s sources said Netanyahu is not concerned about a collapse of the government but is trying to push through the legislation to deny religious parties a source of leverage during negotiations ahead of this year’s elections.
The chair of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Boaz Bismuth said this week he would resume advancing the bill after temporarily halting work on it because of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
The bill is part of a package of measures to reinforce the army as it suffers from growing fatigue after more than two-and-a-half years of near constant war in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. Other bills would extend the term of mandatory military service and lengthen reserve duty.
Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir warned this week that the army could “collapse in on itself” because of a manpower crisis and the strains of constant wars across multiple fronts.
The proposed law has drawn widespread criticism within Israel, with opponents arguing that it is primarily a political concession to ultra-Orthodox coalition partners and would do little to enforce conscription.
It has come under fire from opposition lawmakers, the attorney general and military chiefs, who say it provides too many loopholes and will maintain the long-criticised inequalities in the mandatory draft.
This comes as the military plans to call up as many as 400,000 reservists to mount a full-scale invasion of southern Lebanon.
