From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, June 25, 2024
Edelstein pledges to continue work on enlistment bill despite High Court ruling
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"
Following the High Court’s ruling that there is no legal basis for excluding ultra-Orthodox men from the IDF draft and that those who are eligible for service must be drafted, the chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee pledges to continue working on enlistment legislation recently advanced by the government.
In a tweet, Likud MK Yuli Edelstein posts a screenshot of a passage from article on the ultra-Orthodox Kikar Hashabbat news site reporting that the court believes the current war in Gaza “requires the promotion of a sustainable solution to the issue” of enlistment.
“Therefore, the discussions on the conscription law are continuing as usual in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee,” he states.
The government is currently working to pass a bill to lower the current age of exemption for yeshiva students from 26 to 21 and “very slowly” increase the rate of ultra-Orthodox conscription. Members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party have stated that the bill needs to be significantly revised before they will support.
Edelstein has also indicated that he will not allow the legislation to pass through his committee in its current form.
