Haredi Draft Bill Passes First Reading
Written by Mara Vigevani/TPS on July 03, 2018
A bill that would push off economic sanctions against Haredi seminaries (yeshivot) that fail to meet government-sanctioned IDF draft targets for ultra-Orthodox men passed a preliminary reading in the Knesset on Monday night with 63 Mks voting in favor and 39 against.
The measure calls for Haredi yeshivot to meet annual enlistment quotas, and for those quotas to increase annually for ten years. Yeshivot that fail, or refuse, to meet the quotas will suffer reductions in government funding. The proposal calls for 3,000 yeshiva students to be drafted and 600 will agree to perform civilian national service in the first stage, which will last two years. After that, yeshivot that fail to hit a 95 percent target will face additional economic sanctions.
The bill will be now forwarded to a special committee to be prepared for a second and third reading before the Knesset breaks for the summer next week.
While, prior to the vote, United Torah Judaism leader Yaakov Litzman warned he would quit the coalition if the bill passes its second and third readings in the Knesset this week, saying that whoever “wants to study at a yeshiva should have an arrangement that allows him to continue studying,” most ultra-Orthodox MKs left the plenum and returned to vote only after making sure that their opposition would not bring down the law.
Following the vote, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman tweeted: “The Knesset showed responsibility and approved the draft law on first reading. Most of the Knesset stood behind the law of the defense establishment. Statehood won the spin and the disputes. I hope that the law will be approved, in this Knesset session.”
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, who voted in favor of the bill, told Army radio on Tuesday that he was satisfied with the results of the vote.
“ The ultra-Orthodox understand that more Haredim will enlist and will integrate into the labor market. There is no more consistent party than Yesh Atid on this subject,” said Lapid who forced the issue onto the national agenda during the 2013 election campaign.