Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that the Haredi enlistment bill he wants to pass will bring 17,000 ultra-Orthodox soldiers into the IDF within three years.
“I expect the Haredi public to join this, to give this a chance. I want the rabbis to allow support” in the Knesset, he says in an interview with the Abu Ali Express Telegram channel.
For the past year, the Haredi leadership has pushed to pass a law largely keeping its constituency out of the Israel Defense Forces, after the High Court ruled that decades-long blanket exemptions from army duty traditionally afforded to full-time Haredi yeshiva students were illegal.
Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged between 18 and 24 are currently believed to be eligible for military service, but have not enlisted. The IDF has said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits due to the strain on standing and reserve forces caused by the war against Hamas in Gaza and other military challenges.
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