Edelstein: Purpose of new Haredi conscription bill is ‘certainly not recruitment’

Lawmaker Yuli Edelstein slams Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman MK Boaz Bismuth’s proposed bill regulating ultra-Orthodox enlistment, arguing that his proposal bears no resemblance to Edelstein’s own version of the legislation, advanced during his tenure as head of the powerful parliamentary panel.

Edelstein was removed as committee chair by Likud after drafting a stricter Haredi conscription bill that angered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox coalition partners. He was later kicked off the panel altogether, but appears to speak before it anyway.

“In the last few days I’ve seen quite a few attempts to compare the bill draft I circulated with the draft now before us… In my opinion, it’s foolish to make these comparisons because the objective function is completely different: I tried to reach a conscription law in order to actually draft people, based on an understanding that social change doesn’t happen in two hours, but that we must recruit numbers that match the IDF’s needs.

“The purpose of this law could be anything — apparently maintaining the coalition or something else — but it is certainly not recruitment. It is definitely not recruitment.”

As for the results of this legislation, “if and when it passes — it will harm national security,” he says.

According to Edelstein, the bill aims to enlist far fewer than the 12,000 soldiers the IDF has said it needs, while also lacking sanctions and “real measures aimed at drafting from the Haredi public,” ensuring that “nothing will happen.”

Responding to Edelstein, Bismuth dismisses his predecessor’s claim that the bill does not contain sanctions as a “myth.”

Bismuth’s bill has been criticized by some members of his own party as “toothless.” While it contains sanctions, they are of a much more limited scope than those in Edelstein’s version and last for a limited time.