From the Liveblog of
Friday, June 14, 2024
Cabinet to discuss extending law raising exemption age for IDF reservists on Sunday
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
The cabinet is set to discuss extending an emergency bill delaying retirement for IDF reservists on Sunday, less than a week after the coalition voted to apply “continuity” to a bill from the previous Knesset lowering the current age of exemption from mandatory service for Haredi yeshiva students.
The proposal, a Defense Ministry-backed “draft Security Service Law,” calls to extend a temporary measure raising the exemption age for reserve military service from 40 to 41 for enlisted soldiers and from 45 to 46 for officers until the end of the year.
Specialists such as doctors and air crews will be required to continue serving until they reach 50, instead of 49.
The current measure, which was passed by the Knesset late last year, is set to expire at the end of the month.
According to the draft extension prepared by the Defense Ministry, due to “a very high volume of deaths and injuries as a result of the war, the IDF still needs a significant amount of manpower” and “the extension of the temporary order is required, at this stage, to allow the IDF to keep in service the reserve officers who cannot be replaced” without harming their units’ operational capabilities.
“How much can we continue to walk all over the reservists who have put themselves in danger for us for over 200 days this year?” asks National Unity MK Matan Kahane. “How detached can you be? On Sunday, the government is going to approve a law to extend reserve service and raise the exemption age for reserve duty. Just last week the coalition voted in favor of a law exempting our ultra-Orthodox brothers from military service.”
