Haredi enlistment bill doesn’t appear on leaked copy of agenda for cabinet meeting

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has been widely expected to bring an outline for ultra-Orthodox military enlistment to the cabinet tomorrow during its weekly meeting — although heated opposition within the coalition may prevent it from receiving a hearing.

While details of the proposal — which is said to have been hammered out with the cooperation of the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties — have not been made public, ultra-Orthodox news site Kikar HaShabbat reports that it contains significant concessions on the part of the Haredi representatives.

According to the report, the legislation contains hard targets for recruitment, which would trigger economic sanctions on yeshivas if left unfilled. Failure to meet the law’s requirements after a period of three years would result in a general mobilization of yeshiva students. The law would also include a new oversight mechanism for the army to ensure those exempted from military service to learn full-time are actually doing so.

Despite widespread media reports that the legislation would be placed before the cabinet, it does not appear on a leaked copy of tomorrow’s agenda shared online by the Kan public broadcaster’s political correspondent Michael Shemesh, who writes that it was removed “at the last moment” due to pushback.

On Saturday evening, National Unity party leader Benny Gantz urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to present his bill to the cabinet this week, arguing that it would not boost enlistment among Haredim.

Gantz indicated that a vote in the cabinet was scheduled for Wednesday, and said such a move would be deeply divisive, telling Netanyahu that advancing such a proposal for “political purposes” would be a mistake.

The reported deal has also generated significant pushback among ultra-Orthodox spiritual leaders. In a letter to Shas chairman Aryeh Deri, Rabbi Moshe Tzedaka, a senior yeshiva dean, compared those pushing for ultra-Orthodox enlistment to Israel’s biblical foe Amalek and insisted that even those who are not engaged in full-time study must not enlist in the IDF.

Those arguing for universal enlistment only seek to harm “the Torah-observant public” and are engaged in a “malicious plot,” requiring ultra-Orthodox politicians to “stand firm” against the government’s “decrees and against anyone who seeks to compromise with them,” he is quoted by Kikar HaShabbat as writing.