From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, June 25, 2024
‘There are judges in Jerusalem’: Opposition politicians welcome High Court’s enlistment ruling
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. 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"
Opposition politicians from both the left and the right praise the High Court’s ruling overturning decades of draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.
“There are judges in Jerusalem,” Yisrael Beytenu chief Avigdor Liberman tweets, quoting a saying frequently attributed to Likud founder and former prime minister Menachem Begin.
“In a year where a whole brigade of soldiers was lost or badly injured, in a year where reservists served for over 200 days, there is no clearer proof that the IDF needs more recruits, more people to share the load,” he says.
He congratulates the court for taking “a significant step on the way to historical change.”
“Conservatives and liberals: There are judges in Jerusalem,” New Hope chairman Gideon Sa’ar tweets, echoing Liberman’s rhetoric.
“Congratulations on a just decision of the High Court of Justice. Where there is no government there is justice,” declares newly elected Labor Party chief Yair Golan.
Civil and military service should be the duty of every Israeli “regardless of race, religion and gender,” he states. “We will continue to fight for the democratic and egalitarian image of Israel.”
In a message directly aimed at the ultra-Orthodox community, National Unity leader Benny Gantz blames Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government for seeking out “solutions for maintaining the coalition” rather than a resolution to the enlistment issue. Gantz insists that it is “not too late” to reach broad agreements on the issue.
Military service “is a security need and also a moral obligation, not in place of the world of the Torah, but so that we can continue to exist in this country, which belongs to all of us,” Gantz adds, sharing a link to an outline he had previously proposed on the matter.
