Former Labor MK registers new party called ‘Zeal for Equality in Service’

Former Labor MK Einat Wilf has registered a new party under the name “Zeal for Equality in Service.”

The list of founders submitted by Wilf to the party registry late last month includes American Israeli writer and editor David Hazony and American Israeli solar energy entrepreneur Yosef Abramowitz.

The party’s name hints at political activity on the hot-button issue of equality in military service, while one of its stated goals is to promote the “separation of religious services from the state.”

The dispute over the ultra-Orthodox community serving in the IDF is one of the most contentious in Israel, with decades of governmental and judicial attempts to settle the issue never achieving a stable resolution. The Haredi religious and political leadership fiercely resists any effort to draft their community’s young men.

In a landmark decision in June, the High Court ruled unanimously that the government must draft ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students into the military since there was no longer any legal framework to continue the decades-long practice of granting them blanket exemptions from army service.

Since then, the government has been trying to agree on legislation to regulate Haredi enlistment in a manner that would satisfy both the ultra-Orthodox parties and the court.