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Opposition leads legal challenge against ultra-orthodox draft exemptions
Opposition figures have criticised Sunday’s announcement by the Israeli government to substitute military service with civilian national service for 1,300 ultra-orthodox students, while Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid yesterday launched a legal challenge to the decision.
In July the Tal Law, which had provided a framework for exemptions for ultra-orthodox students from military and civilian national service for the past ten years expired, after the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional. Since then, the Knesset has failed to draft a new, more equitable law and a committee which was tasked with finding a solution, headed by Kadima MK Yochanan Plesner was disbanded. As a result, ultra-orthodox students have yet to be enlisted en masse.
Given the absence of an agreed-upon mechanism for the mass draft of ultra-orthodox students into the military, Sunday’s cabinet decision mandates the enlistment of 1,300 ultra-orthodox students into civilian national service instead. However, this has been sharply criticised by opposition figures as an extension of inequitable draft exemptions.
Boaz Nol and Idan Miller, who are both Knesset candidates for Tzipi Livni’s Hatnuah Party and have been active in campaigning for a universal draft said, “[Netanyahu] continues to disregard all of us; hundreds of thousands who signed the petition calling for equality in shouldering the national burden, and tens of thousands who came to protest.” They accused Netanyahu of a “populist move” to please his ultra-orthodox party coalition partners.
Meanwhile, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid and eight of his party’s Knesset candidates personally petitioned the High Court of Justice yesterday to block the cabinet decision. Lapid said, “It cannot be that the State of Israel distinguishes between blood [of ultra-orthodox] and blood [of others]” and called for “equal service for all,” pledging “we will not sit in a government that does not accept this principle.” He also asked “why there is not by my side the leader of the Labour Party, as a partner in this process.”