Netanyahu defends IDF conscription legislation as ‘a real bill’ that will boost Haredi enlistment

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defends the government’s Haredi conscription regulation bill during tonight’s press conference, saying that 27,000 Haredim will be enlisted within the next three years under the legislation.

Opponents of the bill, including a small number within the coalition, say it is actually crafted to maintain the decades-old exemption of almost all Haredim from military service.

“27,000 [will be enlisted] within three years. We brought a real bill,” Netanyahu says, defending the government’s proposed military conscription bill for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students in response to a question on whether he believes the bill will succeed in getting the Haredi community to serve.

Netanyahu then accuses the opposition of having pushed an “evasion bill,” a term used by critics to describe the current government’s proposal, in the previous government.

In contrast, he says, “we brought a real law that will bring in tens of thousands [of Haredi recruits]. We are creating special frameworks so that a young Haredi man can enter [the military] and leave still Haredi,” he says.

“We are really making a very large effort, with enormous budgets [to support reservists] – but we absolutely must add fighters, and we will add fighters, and there are enough,” he continues. “One can sustain the Torah world on the one hand and serve in the IDF — there are enough who will do so.”