Netanyahu Summons Haredi Leaders In Attempt To Divert Coalition Crisis Over Draft Bill

Jerusalem, 28 February, 2018 (TPS) -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu summoned the leaders of the ultra-Orthodox parties Wednesday evening in an attempt to calm an escalating coalition crisis over a proposed bill, jointly sponsored by by Shas and United Torah Judaism exempting ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students from the military draft.

The meeting comes on the heel of a statement by Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman (United Torah Judaism) earlier in the day that based on instructions from the rabbis on the Council of Torah Sages, he “cannot support” the state budget before the IDF draft law is passed.

Litzman added that the draft law is an integral part of the coalition agreement and that United Torah Judaism expects all coalition factions to support this law if they desire the continued existence of the coalition.

The final budget votes are currently scheduled to take place over the next few weeks, before the Knesset goes on recess on March 18.

UTJ and Shas are seeking to pass the bill through the Knesset to obtain, for the first time, official state recognition of the supreme importance of Torah study and Torah students and therefore elevating the status of students of Torah to being equal to that of IDF conscripts.

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman called the UTJ bill “the daft dodging bill” in a statement Wednesday, adding that it was no less than “extortion.”

Earlier in the week, the Yisrael Beiteinu leader said that the party’s stance on Haredi military service is “clear and consistent.”

“We will only support legislation drawn up by the professional team established by the Defense Ministry,” Liberman said in a Facebook post.

Liberman added that he told the Defense Ministry committee to ignore any political agenda. “I ask you to follow one and only agenda – the IDF and the security of the citizens of Israel,” he wrote.

The bill comes after the Supreme Court struck down an addendum to the Equality of Service Law in September the 2015 intended to push off a clause in the original law intended to delay legal requirements for increased Haredi participation in the armed forces. Last September, the court gave the government one year to implement the original 2014 law.

The current move by the haredi parties is an attempt to bypass that ruling. Should the current bill win ratification as a basic law,  the High Court would not have the jurisdiction to strike it down. As a basic law proposal, the bill requires 61 votes on the Knesset floor for ratification, rather than a simple majority of Knesset members in attendance at the plenum at the time of the vote.

In light of the ongoing crisis, The Israel Democracy Institute called on Wednesday on members of the Knesset to strike down the bill.

Yohanan Plesner, President of the Israel Democracy Institute and his two research Vice Presidents, Prof. Yuval Shany and Prof. Yedidia Stern, explained in a letter to MKs that while Torah study is an important value, a law that will completely exempt all yeshiva students from active service will thwart any future attempts to promote an equal shouldering of the burden.

“The value of equality is not currently anchored in Israel’s Basic Laws, and therefore it is an especially provocative proposal that seeks to establish in the Basic Law an anti-egalitarian arrangement contrary to the Declaration of Independence,” they wrote  

Haredi exemption from military service has been a national issue since Israel declared independence in 1948 but has increasingly taken center stage as the number of exemptions has grown from 400 in 1948 to tens of thousands currently. During the 1990s, non-Haredi groups challenged the blanket exemption in court repeatedly, with the High Court of Justice repeatedly striking down the blanket exemption and ordering the state to legislate the issue formally.