BICOM

Leaders of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud Party and Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid are working to resolve differences over the recommendations of a ministerial committee on enlisting ultra-Orthodox seminary students to national service.

The reform of military enlistment was a major issue in January’s election campaign and a commitment to change the status quo formed part of the coalition agreement which saw Yesh Atid join the government. As a result, a committee headed by Science, Technology and Space Minister Yaakov Peri of Yesh Atid was set up to recommend changes. Last week Peri’s committee published its proposals, including the stipulation that each year, all but 1,800 full-time ultra-Orthodox seminary students will be required to enlist in either the IDF or civilian national service once they reach the age of 21. Failure to do so would result in imprisonment.

However, Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon of Likud demanded that the possibility of criminal proceedings against ultra-Orthodox students refusing to serve be dropped, arguing that such sanctions will not encourage them to serve willingly. This prompted Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid to tell his Knesset faction yesterday, “We will not sit in a government not willing to move on the issue of an equal share of burden.”

However, the tension appeared to be somewhat diffused last night when Prime Minister Netanyahu asked Ya’alon to drop his opposition. According to Ynet News, Netanyahu told Ya’alon, “If needed, we’ll discuss the [sanctions] clause at a later stage of the legislation process” but that “It would not be right to delay the bill at this time.” Speaking at a meeting of the Likud faction, Netanyahu dismissed the incident as a “virtual crisis.”