Haredi minister says no enlistment law is acceptable to both AG and UTJ party

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"

Jerusalem and Heritage Minister Meir Porush at a government conference at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem, June 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Jerusalem and Heritage Minister Meir Porush at a government conference at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem, June 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

There is no compromise on the enlistment of yeshiva students which would be acceptable to both Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and United Torah Judaism, UTJ’s Jerusalem and Heritage Minister Meir Porush declares.

In a speech, the senior ultra-Orthodox politician complains that his constituents are facing “the worst situation for ultra-Orthodox Judaism since the establishment of the state” and says that “we must not delude ourselves and the public that we supposedly have the ability to currently advance a law to regulate the status of yeshiva members that we ultra-Orthodox Jews can live with.”

“If there is someone who succeeds in bringing such a law, I will personally award him a gold medal. There are those who boast of their abilities, and there are also those who said that there is a chance in the [Knesset] Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to change the law for the better. Unfortunately, this is an illusion. At this time, there is no law that can pass muster with the attorney general that we can live with,” he says.

Although the government is not responsible for the High Court of Justice’s ruling that there is no legal basis for exempting yeshiva students from military service, it is legitimate to ask what is the point of staying in the coalition, he continues — insisting it would be appropriate to stay in the coalition until the government stops taking his concerns into account.

And while the situation is “far from perfect,” some Likud ministers like Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem and Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi continue to take ultra-Orthodox interests into account, such as when the coalition passed a recent bill helping Haredi authorities regulate the use of so-called kosher phones, Porush says.

According to a report by the Kan public broadcaster last week, United Torah Judaism chairman and Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his party would have quit the government long ago over military draft exemptions for Haredi men if it were not for the war.

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