Haredi men enlist in IDF. (photo credit: Courtesy)
X ![]()
Dear Reader,
As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analyses from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World.
As one of our loyal readers, we ask you to be our partner.
For $5 a month you will receive access to the following:
- A user uxperience almost completely free of ads
- Access to our Premium Section and our monthly magazine to learn Hebrew, Ivrit
- Content from the award-winning Jerusalem Repor
- A brand new ePaper featuring the daily newspaper as it appears in print in Israel
Help us grow and continue telling Israel’s story to the world.
Thank you,
Ronit Hasin-Hochman, CEO, Jerusalem Post Group
Yaakov Katz, Editor-in-Chief
UPGRADE YOUR JPOST EXPERIENCE FOR 5$ PER MONTH Show me later Don’t show it again
The cabinet voted on Sunday to approve new legislation for haredi IDF enlistment for passage to the Knesset, where a first reading is scheduled for Monday.
The bill stipulates annual enlistment targets which increase every year for ten years, and financial sanctions in the form of steadily increasing reductions to the budget for haredi yeshivas should enlistment targets not be met.
Shas leader and Interior Minister Aryeh Deri initially abstained from the cabinet vote, but according to his office did so mistakenly and subsequently requested from the cabinet administration to change his vote to “against,” a request which was accepted.
It was reported on Sunday that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has raised serious concerns regarding the law, including opposition to the fact that the financial sanctions will only take effect in three years time.
According to a report on the Walla news website Mandelblit is also concerned that funds cut from the yeshiva budget will simply be redirected to the yeshivas through different avenues.
Although the haredi parties are expected to either abstain or vote against the bill on Sunday, it is expected to pass due to the somewhat surprising support of Yesh Atid for the legislation.
And despite their apparent opposition, the haredi parties do not plan to topple the government over the law, seeing it as “the lesser of two evils” in the words of Rabbi Haim Kanievsky, the most senior leader of the non-hassidic haredi world.
Bizarrely, although Deri voted (eventually) against the law in cabinet, he called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to institute a High Court override clause in the haredi enlistment bill to stop the court striking the law down, despite his opposition to it.
An aide to Deri explained that what Deri meant is for the override clause to be included, to allow further changes to be made in committee to the current version of the legislation.
Comments are closed.