Edelstein submits bill to cancel reserve duty exemptions handed out over last decade

Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein submits a bill to cancel discharges granted to IDF reservists under the exemption age for reserve military service.

“In light of the continuation of Operation Swords of Iron and in view of the burden currently placed on reservists, the circle of reservists must be expanded through a reexamination of the exemptions given to reservists, not due to age, and an examination of the reassignment of reservists who did not receive an exemption from reserve service and were not called to reserve service from the start of Operation Swords of Iron,” the bill explains.

Under the terms of the proposal, reservists would be recalled to duty unless they are granted a new exemption after a case-by-case examination.

According to Channel 12, around 170,000 such exemptions have been granted over the past ten years.

In late June, Edelstein delayed a vote on extending a temporary measure raising the exemption age for reserve military service from 40 to 41 for soldiers and from 45 to 46 for officers for several additional months, stating that he would allow it to pass without consensus in his coalition.

The IDF is suffering manpower shortages caused by the hostilities on the northern border and the ongoing war in Gaza, which began on October 7, when Hamas-led terrorists rampaged through southern communities, slaughtering 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.

On Sunday, the army sent out the first batch of 1,000 draft orders to ultra-Orthodox men aged 18-26 on Sunday morning, in the first of three such waves scheduled for the coming four weeks.

Edelstein’s committee is currently debating the text of an ultra-Orthodox enlistment bill.