Meeting during recess, Knesset panel votes narrowly to extend emergency reservist call-up

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee passed an extension of an emergency military call-up order by an 8 to 7 vote on Monday, a week after the measure was put on the backburner due to the coalition being unable to muster a majority, a Knesset spokesperson said.

The order, replacing one that expired in May, allows the army to draft up to 430,000 reservists as it seeks to expand fighting in Gaza, though far fewer are expected to be called up. The order expires on September 4, unlike previous orders, which were good for several months at a time.

According to the Walla news site, the vote took place at the Defense Ministry’s Tel Aviv headquarters rather than in the Knesset, which is in its summer recess. The building itself is closed for the last two weeks of August.

The government had planned to bring the measure for a committee vote last week but was forced to call it off due to the absence of New Hope MK Mishel Buskila and the committee’s former chair, Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, who was ousted in July for refusing to pass a draft exemption order for yeshiva students.

During Monday’s vote, Edelstein was absent again and his seat was filled by Likud MK Tally Gotliv, who presumably voted with the coalition.

All opposition members voted against the measure, and members of the ultra-Orthodox parties, who recently left the government over its failure to pass a draft exemption law for yeshiva students, did not participate, according to Hebrew media reports.

One of the Haredi committee members, United Torah Judaism lawmaker Meir Porush, was absent because he has been conducting a partial hunger strike to protest the arrest of several yeshiva students for evading the military draft in a new army push to strengthen enforcement against draft dodgers.

The extension of the military call-up has drawn criticism from opposition members, who accuse the government of overburdening exhausted reservists while simultaneously seeking to legislate draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men. The cabinet’s decision last week to expand the ongoing war in Gaza will likely necessitate the call-up of tens of thousands of reservists, further taxing the military and the economy, critics charge.

“The worst government in the country’s history is once again issuing draft orders to the same people who have already served 400 and 500 days of reserve duty, while at the same time continuing to sponsor ultra-Orthodox draft evasion,” wrote Opposition Leader Yair Lapid.

Opposition MK and chair of the Yisrael Beytenu faction, Avigdor Liberman, also wrote on X that “the draft-dodging government is betraying soldiers time and again just to maintain its alliance with the ultra-Orthodox dealmakers in the Knesset.”

“We will not compromise on Israel’s security,” he says. “Conscription for all – no exemptions and no schemes, this is the order of the hour.”

The authorization of the IDF to draft reservists with emergency call-up orders has been brought for government approval every few months since the beginning of the war in October 2023.

In non-emergency times, the IDF can only call up reservists a long time in advance rather than at short notice, and cannot call them up for a large number of days.

The last order, approved in May, allowed the IDF to draft up to 450,000 reservists. It was set to expire at the end of the month.

The number does not constitute the actual number of reservists that the IDF is calling up. The record total for that remains at 287,000 — the number of reservists who were called up immediately in the wake of the October 7, 2023, onslaught.