War cabinet minister Benny Gantz and observer Gadi Eisenkot should object to the government’s plan to lengthen IDF mandatory and reserve service since it continues to grant an exemption to haredi (ultra-Orthodox) men, opposition leader MK Yair Lapid said in a press conference on Tuesday evening.
“There cannot be those who are equal, and those who are more equal… the state must behave like a state and create a clear connection between rights and obligations. Whoever does not enlist [in the army], should not receive funding,” Lapid said.
The statement came after the government last week published its plan to lengthen IDF service, both because of the growing number of casualties in the war, and because of the need to enlarge the army to meet the heightened security situation.
The main tenets of the plan are that mandatory service will be lengthened to three years, the age of reservist exception will rise from 40 to 45, the age of exemption for reservist officers will rise to 50, and the number of mandatory reserve duty days per year will double.
The plan does not include drafting haredi men into the army.
“It cannot be that two former chiefs of staff [Gantz and Eisenkot] will stand by while hundreds of thousands of young haredim that the army needs remain exempt,” Lapid added.
Also on Tuesday evening, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi called for a “reexamination of prior realities” regarding sharing the burden of IDF service.
“In these challenging times, one thing is very clear – everyone should do their part to protect our home. This is a different time, and prior realities should be reexamined,” Halevi said.
He added that “the IDF has always sought to integrate all parts of Israeli society among its ranks. This war demonstrates the need for change; to join the service, to protect our home. We have a historic opportunity to expand the IDF’s recruitment sources at a time when the necessity is very high. We will know how to produce the solutions and the right conditions for every population that will join this noble mission.”
Likud minister, MKs call for 'new groups' to join IDF
OPPOSITION TO the new bill also arose from within the Likud on Tuesday.
Likud Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli and MKs Moshe Saada and Dan Illouz wrote in a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “new groups” of Israeli citizens should be required to serve in the IDF.
The writers said that they “could not be a part of this moral and ethical distortion.”
“Israel’s current security needs require a broadening of the circle of citizens who carry the burden [of military service]. As opposed to normal times, a situation where some groups in society shoulder the security burden with its heavy prices, while others … continue with their lives, can no longer be accepted with equanimity,” the three wrote.
Chikli, Saada, and Illouz acknowledged the fact that a draft of haredi men could not be accomplished by coercion, and therefore demanded that the new plan to lengthen IDF service only apply for a year, during which time agreements would “hopefully” be made to enable additional groups to take part.
Ministers from the Sephardic haredi party Shas, led by Welfare Minister Yaakov Margi, expressed their support that those who did not study in yeshivot (religious academies) full-time should join the IDF. However, ministers from the Ashkenazic haredi party, United Torah Judaism, refused to discuss the matter publicly. Both Shas and UTJ are members of the coalition.
The issue of haredi enlistment in the IDF has been highly contested for decades. Several proposals to regulate the issue were struck down by Israel’s Supreme Court due to their inequality. There is no current legal basis for the exemption of haredim, and the issue was expected to be a central one during the Knesset’s winter session before the war broke out on October 7.
Gantz said in a statement on Thursday that in April of last year, he and fellow party member MK Eisenkot presented a plan that would incorporate haredim and Israeli-Arabs into national service programs so that all Israelis will provide at least one year of national service. Gantz said that he would act to implement his ideas with “broad agreement."