Gov’t to vote on integrating more Haredim in civil service

The government will vote on Sunday on a decision intended to integrate more ultra-Orthodox Israelis into the civil service, Channel 2 reported Thursday evening.

The decision was submitted by Minister of the Negev, Galilee and Periphery Aryeh Deri, chairman of the ultra-Orthodox party Shas.

According to Channel 2, the percentage of ultra-Orthodox working in the public sector is negligible, and dramatically lower than their size in the country’s population.

Deri’s proposal was drawn up during his half year as minister of economy, a post he left last month over the natural gas row in the Knesset. The Shas leader said he preferred to leave the ministry than use its legal powers to override antitrust concerns about the deal over extraction of gas from reserves in the Mediterranean.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took on the portfolio from Deri and earlier on Thursday signed his approval to the deal, paving the way for its passage in the cabinet.

The number of haredi men and women who will enter the public sector if the decision passes will be small, and inconsequential in terms of the larger employment woes faced by the ultra-Orthodox community, Deri explained, but it would create “visibility,” both in the eyes of citizens turning to state institutions and in the eyes of the haredi community itself.

According to the plan, several hundred public-sector jobs will be earmarked specifically for ultra-Orthodox employees by the year 2020. The decision also calls to establish a database of ultra-Orthodox students and to reserve some entry-level public sector jobs specifically for students from this demographic.

At the same time, the initiative will be widely advertised in media targeting the haredi community, and a special training course tailored to the needs of the community will be launched. The course, according to Channel 2, will be similar to the civil service cadet course currently undertaken by candidates from the general population.