Ministers to vote Sunday on extending male mandatory IDF service to 3 years
Government order will effectively cover the next eight years; with ultra-Orthodox exempt from service, watchdog slams decision as ‘scandalous’ and a ‘moral injustice’
The government will vote Sunday on extending mandatory service for male Israel Defense Forces soldiers to three years, a source with knowledge of the matter told The Times of Israel on Friday, after Hebrew media reported that the narrow top-tier security cabinet had approved the order on Thursday.
Once okayed by a forum of all government ministers, for the next five years male soldiers will serve 36 months, meaning the order will effectively cover a period of eight years.
If approved, it will begin by being applied to soldiers currently serving and will also apply to women who are serving in positions that require them to sign a waiver that their service period will be equal to that of men in the same roles.
At the end of the extension period, army service will return to the current 32-month commitment.
The Movement for Quality Government watchdog slammed the “scandalous decision,” which came as the government wrangles over legislation to draft male members of the ultra-Orthodox community who enjoy broad exemptions from military service. Critics say a proposed bill will effectively keep masses of ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, yeshiva students out of the army rather than seeing them drafted.
The group said in a statement that the “cynical and outrageous step” of moving ahead with the extension without recruiting Haredim “constitutes a moral injustice and a crime against the fighters who bear the burden” of military service.
The statement cited an estimation that there are 63,000 Haredi men eligible for the draft and called on the government to reverse the decision to instead extend service to those already in uniform.
Advancement of the extension had been held up over a dispute on the matter between Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, according to the Kan public broadcaster.
After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally intervened and ordered the two to reach a compromise, they did so, enabling the security cabinet to send the extension for government approval.
Gallant and Smotrich were reportedly divided on two key issues: Gallant wanted the extension to last for ten years to rebuild the army’s fighting power, while the Finance Ministry wanted to keep the order to just five years because lengthening service for soldiers impacts the economy by keeping them out of the workforce.
Additionally, the Finance Ministry wanted the service extension to be linked to soldiers’ roles in the forces, with combat troops serving the full three years, but non-combat soldiers getting an earlier release, though also less pay.
The Defense Ministry, for its part, insisted that such a scheme could only be implemented in another two or three years when there is a clearer picture as to whether or not there is a need for more soldiers in non-frontline roles.
At a cabinet meeting earlier this week Gallant faced scorn from fellow ministers, including Netanyahu, over his push for the extension while refusing to back the Haredi draft bill unless it earned broad consensus in the Knesset, including from opposition lawmakers.
Netanyahu reportedly called Gallant’s stance on the Haredi draft bill “the height of cynicism and politicization.”
The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is currently working on an ultra-Orthodox enlistment bill that chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud) has also said will advance only if there is “broad agreement,” angering Netanyahu and the ultra-Orthodox, who see it as the only way to prevent a mass mobilization of yeshiva students.
If passed, the legislation would set the age of exemption from mandatory service for Haredi yeshiva students at 21 and “very slowly” increase the rate of ultra-Orthodox enlistment.
Gallant was the only member of the coalition to vote last month against reviving the bill, which initially passed its first reading under the previous government.
Prominent ultra-Orthodox rabbis urged yeshiva students on Wednesday and Thursday to refuse any contact with the Israel Defense Forces, as the parties that represent their community escalated threats to leave the coalition if Netanyahu fails to pass a law to exempt Haredi men from military service by the end of the Knesset’s summer session.
The IDF is suffering manpower shortages caused by the hostilities on the northern border and the ongoing war in Gaza, which began on October 7, when Hamas-led terrorists rampaged through southern communities, slaughtering 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
In another move to keep up the military’s size, the government is working to pass legislation delaying retirement for IDF reservists by extending a temporary measure passed last December.
However, last month Edelstein held up that bill at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee claiming he would only advance it for votes in the plenum if there is a broad consensus on that too.
If passed, the law would extend a temporary measure raising the exemption age for reserve military service from 40 to 41 for soldiers and from 45 to 46 for officers for several additional months due to a manpower shortage amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
