UTJ, Litzman postpone bill to deny funds to extremist yeshivot

A vote on a bill that would revoke state funding from extremist Haredi yeshivot whose senior staff incite against IDF conscription was postponed due to opposition from United Torah Judaism chairman Ya’acov Litzman.

The bill, proposed by Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer and three of his Knesset party colleagues, is designed to help tackle the extremism of the Jerusalem Faction, a radical Haredi grouping that has caused mayhem and misery on the roads by blocking traffic in demonstrations against the arrest of draft-dodging yeshiva students.

Full-time yeshiva students are able to obtain military deferrals if they study in a state-recognized yeshiva. At the same time, those yeshivot receive state funds for every yeshiva student, which they use to pay students a monthly stipend.

Yeshivot and yeshiva deans associated with the Jerusalem Faction have, however, instructed their students not to present themselves at IDF draft offices to carry out the necessary bureaucratic procedures to obtain the deferral.

The Jerusalem Faction and its leader, Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, claim that since some Haredi men are being coercively drafted into the army, they refuse to cooperate in any way with the IDF.

There are currently 6,200 Haredi soldiers serving in the IDF, including 390 officers and noncommissioned officers.

Forer’s law, which is an amendment to the Budget Foundations Law, would revoke state recognition from any yeshiva whose head publicly called on students to avoid IDF service, or who incited students to harass or be violent against IDF personnel, thereby rendering it ineligible to receive state funds.

Also, any yeshiva where more than 10% of its students fail to report to IDF draft offices to obtain their military service deferrals would lose its state recognition and be ineligible for state funding.

The bill was scheduled for discussion and a possible vote in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation for passage to the Knesset on Sunday, but opposition from Health Minister Litzman caused the debate to be postponed by two weeks.

According to an aide to Litzman, the minister insists that since the law is an amendment to the important Budget Foundations Law, it could have “broad implications in additional fields,” and that it therefore requires “a deep and fundamental debate for this sensitive and critical issue.”

The mainstream Haredi community is thought to be increasingly opposed to the extremist antics of the Jerusalem Faction, and some Haredi MKs have begun to speak out against the group.

United Torah Judaism, and Litzman in particular it would seem, are nevertheless going to be extremely cautious in any legislative attempts to defund the extremist group, for fear that it could inadvertently or indirectly have negative consequences for yeshivot and other institutions associated with the mainstream Haredi community.

Forer described his bill as “one of the most just pieces of legislation that has been submitted to the Ministerial Committee for Legislation,” and said that Yisrael Beytenu would continue to work on advancing it.

“It’s unthinkable that someone who incites people to evade military service and supports harming IDF soldiers will benefit from state funds. I expect from MKs to reject these inciters and not to embrace them.”