After booting Gallant, Netanyahu said to secure support for Haredi draft exemptions
Cabinet secretary reportedly says departure of defense chief, who opposed bill giving ultra-Orthodox pass on military service, will allow ‘good bill’ to advance
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was readying Monday to revive a controversial bill cementing ultra-Orthodox exemptions from mandatory military service, less than a week after sacking his defense chief who had opposed the move.
The premier was reportedly slated to hold meetings Monday evening on pushing the bill ahead with newly appointed Defense Minister Israel Katz and Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein, as a report indicated that one of his top aides had told coalition leaders that the departure of Yoav Gallant would pave the way for the legislation to advance.
Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox coalition partners have pushed for the passage of a law regulating military exemptions for yeshiva students and other members of the Haredi community, after the High Court ruled in June that the dispensations, in place for decades, were illegal.
The Israel Defense Forces has since sent out draft orders to several thousand ultra-Orthodox men, sparking protests and fierce opposition from the religious and political leadership of the ultra-Orthodox. Most Israelis outside the community, meanwhile, want to scrap the exemptions; on Monday, hundreds of women marched in Jerusalem against the legislative effort.
Gallant, who was fired by Netanyahu on Tuesday, was seen as one of the main obstacles to the bill, describing it after his sacking as a “discriminatory, corrupt law.” He claimed his opposition to the law had been one of the main factors behind his dismissal, which came while Israel is fighting wars on two fronts and is facing a severe manpower shortage in the military.
Netanyahu denied Gallant was fired for political reasons, instead citing disagreements on how to manage the war effort.
But at a meeting of coalition leaders Monday, cabinet secretary Yossi Fuchs said replacing Gallant with Katz marked “a new opportunity” to advance “a good law,” according to leaked comments cited widely in Hebrew-language media.
During the meeting, United Torah Judaism party head Yitzhak Goldknopf, one of the main drivers behind the bill, repeated his insistence that ultra-Orthodox males would not serve en masse.
According to reports, Goldknopf told colleagues that while he agrees in principle that “those who don’t study [Torah full-time] should serve,” military service “should not be imposed,” but implemented “by agreement.”
Religious Affairs Minister Michael Malchieli, speaking on behalf of Shas leader Aryeh Deri, blamed Gallant for the legislation being held up, saying the Likud lawmaker “torpedoed every effort to enable” a viable solution.
Under the bill as originally submitted, members of the ultra-Orthodox community as young as 21 would be able to apply for permanent exemptions, while a quota of Haredi men being conscripted would increase “very slowly.”
The legislation is currently stuck in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, with Edelstein vowing that it will only advance if lawmakers can reach a “broad consensus” on the matter.
Netanyahu’s planned meetings with Katz and Edelstein were reported by Channel 13 news. There was no confirmation from any of their offices that a meeting took place.
Following Gallant’s termination, Edelstein stated that he would continue to oppose “any law that attempts to circumvent our ceaseless efforts to expand the conscription base in the State of Israel.”
Shortly thereafter, coalition whip Ofir Katz took disciplinary action against Edelstein and fellow Likud MK Dan Illouz, who also opposes exemptions for Haredim.
Aside from pursuing upped Haredi conscription in the name of equality and as a means of helping the community integrate more fully into society, officials say the manpower boost is needed for the military, as it struggles through fatigue and shortages, after over a year of war in Gaza and with fighting having expanded to Lebanon as well.
At the meeting of coalition heads, Religious Zionism party leader Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, noted that members of the so-called national religious community, which make up a large chunk of his voting base, were “sacrificing immensely, with many fallen soldiers.”
He called for Haredi leaders to issue “a positive declaration… about the draft.”
Fellow far-right leader Itamar Ben Gvir of Otzma Yehudit suggested that ultra-Orthodox men be drafted into the border police gendarmes, which he oversees as national security minister.
“I know how to draft Haredim,” Ben Gvir claimed, adding that he had suggested the plan to Gallant several times, “but he didn’t respond.”
According to a survey by the Israel Democracy Institute in March, some 64 percent of Israelis support changing the system of exemptions that have been granted to the ultra-Orthodox for decades.
In Jerusalem, hundreds of religious women held a protest against the proposed legislation, holding signs that argued against conscription exemptions on Jewish religious grounds.
Marching near the city’s Strings Bridge, some women carried military stretchers meant to symbolize the soldiers who shoulder the burden of military service.
"דרוש חילוף תחת האלונקה": מאות נשים מהמגזר הדתי לאומי בהפגנה בירושלים הקוראת לגיוס חרדים לצבא@hod_barel
(צילום: מאיר אליפור) pic.twitter.com/kshbHGexgk— גלצ (@GLZRadio) November 11, 2024
Others held signs with slogans including, “Collapsing under the burden,” “And your brothers will go to war and you will sit here,” and “He who believes [in the Torah] does not dodge the draft.”
