Katz rejects predecessor Gallant’s ‘cynical’ criticism of Haredi draft bill

Defense Minister Israel Katz rejects accusations by his predecessor Yoav Gallant that a law Katz and the coalition are advancing regarding the enlistment of Haredi men to the military exempts too many of them from service and doesn’t meet the IDF’s needs during a multifront war.

Announcing his resignation from the Knesset last night, Gallant said his opposition to that law was the reason he was fired as defense minister.

“There should be no cynical political use of an ethical issue such as enlistment to the IDF,” Katz claims in a statement, without directly mentioning Gallant.

“When it is completed, the new enlistment law will be a historic turning point and will recruit tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox to meaningful service in the IDF, for the first time since the establishment of the state — in contrast with the recently employed policy, which failed and caused a decline in the number of Haredim serving in the IDF.”

In the months before he was fired, Gallant issued thousands of enlistment summonses to ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students to comply with a High Court ruling saying the community’s decades-long blanket exemption no longer had any legal basis.