With the government insisting that all coalition members vote along with party discipline, the final draft of the new Draft Law that sets the new guidelines for drafting Haredi yeshiva bochurim was sure to pass with little problem. The fact that the opposition has declared a ban on Knesset proceedings for these few days with all these laws being passed made it even smoother.
The Draft Law passed by a vote of 65 in favor and 1 opposed, with MK Yoni Chetboun (Habayit Hayehudi) breaking ranks and opposing. The Civil Service Law passed with 67 in favor and 1 opposed. Chetboun has put himself at some risk - Habayit Hayehudi had threatened that any MK that breaks ranks will be punished for it - but Chetboun decided to stick to his beliefs anyway and vote against.
The basics of the new are that in these first three years, all haredi boys (above the age of 22) will be granted exemptions (those between 18 and 22 today will be able to defer service and by age 24 can qualify for an exemption), but by 2017 the haredi yeshivas must be sending a minimum quota of 5200 yeshiva students to the IDF (or national/civil service). If the 5200 number is reached, all will continue with the quota being adjusted in subsequent years. If the quota is not reached, then all haredi yeshiva students above the age of 21 will be drafted with the exception of exemptions being granted to a maximum of 1800 "iluyim" - especially talented and bright yeshiva bochurim. All the rest will either be drafted or be put in jail for being AWOL. The new law also extends the service of the hesder yeshivot by an additional month - hesder boys will now serve 17 months in the IDF. As well, the general IDF service will be shortened from 36 months to 32 months.
The way governments come and go in Israel, averaging about 2.5 to 3 years, there is probably a greater chance of this law being repealed or changed in a future government that will include haredi members than there is that it will remain as it passed today. As well, it is expected to be appealed to the Supreme Court. It is not likely that the Supreme Court will knock it down, but anything is possible.
It is a good start, I think. I don't like the criminal sanctions, and there might be some other aspects that I don't like, but overall something needed to be done and this gets the ball rolling. Maybe everyone will see that this more or less is beneficial to everyone and while it might require some future adjusting and amending, it will mostly be accepted. Or maybe not and a future government will knock it down or change it completely.
The haredi community complains about the hesder yeshivot serving less time and they consider it unfair. I don't consider it unfair. There is nothing stopping the haredi community from establishing its own hesder yeshivot whose students will also serve 17 months instead of 32 months (though I think 17 months applies only to those hesder yeshivot already in existence and in the system today, while new ones will serve more - maybe 24 months). They can do this which will allow them to learn more than if they would be drafted straight out and it will let them serve less actual IDF time than getting drafted straight out. I imagine that such haredi hesder yeshivot will start being formed in order to take advantage of those benefits.
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