Seventy-seven ultra-Orthodox men volunteer in one day for national service
Big sign-up comes as Plesner Committee drafts law on obligations for all
As the Plesner Committee worked on its recommendations to replace the Tal Law on military and national service, 77 ultra-Orthodox Israelis preempted mandatory conscription by signing up Wednesday for national civil service voluntarily.
That number surpassed the number of volunteers for the entire month of June prior to Wednesday, Israel Radio reported.
The Committee for the Advancement of an Equal Burden, headed by MK Yohanan Plesner (Kadima), has until August to come up with an alternative to the Tal Law, which allowed ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students to defer army service and was declared unconstitutional by the High Court earlier this year. On Thursday, Plesner told his party’s Knesset faction that he would also recommend levying fines against schools that harbored draft dodgers.