Netanyahu calls meeting with Edelstein, as report details sanctions latter insists be included in Haredi draft bill

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu summons Yuli Edelstein for a meeting this evening after last-ditch talks between the Likud lawmaker and Haredi representatives failed to settle their differences regarding an ultra-Orthodox conscription bill currently making its way through the Knesset.

Edelstein has pledged that any law coming out of his Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee would levy sanctions on draft dodgers, a position he apparently maintained last night. Following Edelstein’s reported refusal to back down on sanctions during the meeting, the spiritual leaders of Degel Hatorah, one of the two factions that make up the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, instructed their MKs to introduce a bill to dissolve the Knesset.

According to media reports, Netanyahu has been considering replacing Edelstein as chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, although this move has been rejected by the Haredim, who believe it would deepen opposition to the bill. Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi has proposed that Netanyahu allow him to resign from his ministerial position and replace Edelstein, the Israel Hayom daily reported.

While the final text of the bill, which is undergoing revisions by committee staff, has not been made public, the ultra-Orthodox news site Kikar Hashabbat reports that it includes a variety of harsh sanctions that would hit draft dodgers hard in the wallet.

These include the loss of property tax and public transportation discounts, the removal of tax benefits for working women married to dodgers, exclusion from the housing lottery and the cancellation of daycare and academic subsidies. The bill would also prevent draft dodgers up to the age of 29 from receiving driver’s licenses or traveling abroad and would open them up to the threat of arrest.

Commenting on the sanctions, committee member Moshe Tur-Paz (Yesh Atid) tells The Times of Israel that the ultra-Orthodox have been receiving privileges — such as property tax discounts pegged to how many children they have — for years and that this is “unreasonable” given “the economic burden they create.”

“Regarding some of the sanctions, they are sanctions that exist anyway; it’s just a matter of activating them,” the opposition member continues, adding that most Israelis believe that those “who don’t contribute to the state by enlisting in the IDF” should receive nothing.

“I fully support all the sanctions mentioned here and I think the time has come, certainly during a war in which four soldiers were killed in a week,” Tur-Paz says.