Knesset defense panel legal adviser calls for harsher sanctions on draft dodgers

The coalition-backed bill regulating ultra-Orthodox enlistment currently being debated in the Knesset should include harsher sanctions, and they should continue after yeshiva students receive a full exemption from military service at age 26, asserts Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee legal adviser Miri Frenkel Shor.

Writing to members of the panel ahead of this morning’s discussion, Frenkel Shor argues that efforts to reduce the current inequality in conscription depend “to a crucial extent on the creation of an effective and proportionate mechanism for denying benefits” to those who do not serve in the army, and criticizes the bill’s gradual application of sanctions based on consecutive annual failures to meet enlistment targets.

A model in which the bulk of sanctions are concentrated in the first year “is preferable, in our opinion, to a prolonged distribution” over the course of three years, she writes, adding that lawmakers should examine expanding the sanctions package beyond those currently included in the bill.

Frenkel Shor also calls for reexamining the bill’s clause ending sanctions at age 26, when annual deferments turn into a permanent exemption from service, stating that it is questionable whether the revocation of certain benefits “of long-term economic importance” such as daycare subsidies and housing benefits are effective if they are to be restored at this point.

She additionally questions why, if those not serving in the IDF will not be allowed to receive a driver’s license under the proposed law, should it not also revoke licenses already held by yeshiva students when they received their deferments.