From the Liveblog of
Thursday, June 12, 2025
New Haredi enlistment outline delays cuts to public transportation, daycare subsidies for draft dodgers
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
A new enlistment outline agreed to Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein will reportedly delay several key sanctions on draft dodgers to which the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties had vehemently objected.
According to the ultra-Orthodox Behadrei Haredim news site, the new outline stipulates that the enlistment law will be a temporary measure lasting for only six years, or four if it fails to meet its mobilization goals.
While sanctions connected to subsidies for academic study, international travel and drivers licenses would be imposed immediately, others relating to daycare and public transportation subsidies would be delayed.
Should the government be unable to reach its enlistment targets in two years, additional sanctions would take effect, including excluding draft dodgers from the housing lottery.
Institutional sanctions on yeshivas that fail to provide enough soldiers would also be imposed, including up to 50 percent of a yeshiva’s budget if it provides less than 95% of its annual target and all of its budget if it does not reach 75%.
Under the reported compromise, the status of all yeshiva students would be reset and need to be regulated from scratch.
The Times of Israel Community.