AFTERNOON NEWS NOTES
ISRAEL: YESHIVA STUDENTS AND CONSCRIPTION
ARTICLES
- Smotrich’s idea to fund yeshivas despite the suspension of funds if a law is not passed by the end of March, drew ire from Liud ministers who think it would cause public outrage. Such a law, which would bypass the High Court of Justice and continue funding yeshivas after the present conscription law expires.
- Haaretz Editorial, 2/22/24
- A proposed law under which 66,000 ultra-Orthodox men registered as yeshiva and married students will be exempt from military service.
- The High Court has ruled three times that this arrangement is illegal.
- The High Court’s position is one of the main motives behind the ultra-Orthodox parties’ support of the judicial coup, designed to render the Supreme Court powerless.
- Any draft law that does not include drafting Yeshiva students must be opposed, and opposed by the coalition, “even at the price of bringing down the government.”
- February 9, 2024, Opinion by Anshel Pfeffer
- The Haredi Community that has for 75 years remained distant from matters of state was seemingly prepared to take part. Early in the Israel-Hamas war, a few dozen ultra-Orthodox men volunteered to join the IDF. It was a “brilliant publicity stunt.”
- Within a few weeks most of them were back in civilian life.
- They will occasionally “be called up for light reserve duty in the Military Rabbinate corps.
- Haredi leadership has no intention of allowing students to enlist. It would empty the yeshivas and “end their control over the young men in their communities.”
- Netanyahu has been trying to highlight the volunteers.
- But, “…a few thousand part-time volunteers is not going to convince Israelis that the Haredim are carrying a fair share of the burden.”
- Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu is the party most openly critical of the Haredi community.
- If there is a new government, that government may need to include a Haredi party in their coalition. Then, ending examptions would not happen.
- And, there is no viable way of forcing tens of thousands of yeshiva students to enlist.
- These students have been brought up in a community largely isolated from the rest of Israeli society. They have no relevant education or experience to help them in the stressful secular environment of military service.
- The Haredi schools are under no obligation to teach the national curriculum, and from the age of 13 denies male students any nonreligious studies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_of_yeshiva_students
- Since 1977, this community has been exempted from military duty or national service. In 2012, service became mandatory but the law has never been enforced.
- In 2014, there was a mass rally in Jerusalem against the proposed law overturning the exemption for military service for Haredi students.
- 300,000 to 600,000 people attended.
Law, Power, and Justice 
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