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Defence Minister Ya’alon defers ultra-Orthodox draft orders
Israel’s Attorney General yesterday confirmed that Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon has requested to postpone the military enlistment of 608 ultra-Orthodox students while the government’s proposed legislation awaits Knesset approval.
The enlistment papers were issued last year after the expiration of the Tal Law, which was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The Tal Law provided a framework for exemptions for ultra-Orthodox students from military and civilian national service for the past ten years. In the absence of a new law, ultra-Orthodox students born in 1994 and 1995 began to receive call-up orders en masse, with the first group scheduled to enlist in August.
Following January’s election though, a ministerial committee headed by Science, Technology and Space Minister Yaakov Peri of Yesh Atid proposed new legislation to create a more equitable draft, including the stipulation that each year, all but 1,800 full-time ultra-Orthodox seminary students will be required to enlist in either the IDF or civilian national service once they reach the age of 21. Failure to do so will result in imprisonment. The Peri Committee proposals have already passed a first reading by the Knesset.
Yesterday, Israel’s Attorney General, Yehuda Weinstein informed the High Court of Justice that Defence Minister Ya’alon requested to defer the scheduled draft of the 608 ultra-Orthodox students until December for fear that their enlistment would conflict with the legislation currently being discussed. The State, through Weinstein rejected complaints against Ya’alon’s request, saying “it seems that postponing the [ultra-Orthodox] recruitment by a short period of four months alone will not make permanent damage, if any” to the wider attempts to create a more equitable draft system.
Meanwhile, in a related legal development, the High Court of Justice yesterday criticised the State for not giving satisfactory explanations in relation to a petition by NGOs for the State to end subsidies to ultra-Orthodox students who do not serve in the IDF.