Gantz alludes to broader national service
Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz wants legislation to increase haredi (ultra-Orthodox) enlistment in the IDF, including new avenues for national service, he said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
A law to replace the one struck down by the High Court of Justice in 2017 was needed quickly, given the ongoing legislative lacuna on this issue, said Gantz, who is also the defense minister.
Gantz’s party, Blue and White, and Likud pledged in their coalition agreement to pass legislation drafted by the Defense Ministry during the last government, when Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman was defense minister. That legislation set enlistment targets for the haredi community and financial sanctions against yeshiva budgets if they were not met.
The coalition agreement stipulates that targets for haredi men be determined by the government and not in the legislation. This has given rise to concerns that the enlistment targets will be set deliberately low by the government at the insistence of United Torah Judaism and Shas to avoid financial sanctions against yeshiva budgets.
After initially giving the government a year to pass a new law, the High Court has granted several requests to postpone its deadline due to political fights over the issue and the recent 18 months of election campaigning.
“We will preserve the model of the people’s army,” Gantz was quoted as saying by the Kikar Hashabbat haredi website. At his briefing, he said the IDF is a conscript army, adding that “alongside it we will open additional service tracks for all sectors of Israeli society,” Kikar
Hashabbat reported.
“We will not wait for enlistment rates to decline further… all Israeli citizens will need to be somewhere in the puzzle of this model,” Gantz said.
In 2018, the Pnima organization for societal change founded by former education minister Shai Piron formulated proposals for a new model for IDF and national service. At the time, both Gantz and current Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi (Blue and White) were part of Pnima. Ashkenazi was directly involved in drawing up the proposals.
The Pnima plan for national service said the IDF has a 16% manpower surplus and does not need every 18-year-old to serve.
It proposed three tracks for mandatory service: IDF, internal security and emergency services; welfare; and education. All sectors would need to serve, including haredim and Arabs.
Exemptions from national service could be made for those who excel in religious studies, sports, culture and science. Such exemptions would be made with “proportionality,” meaning not blanket ones as are handed out today for yeshiva students.
In the coalition agreement, Blue and White insisted that after passing the Defense Ministry’s haredi enlistment bill, new legislation should address the broader issues.
“The government will draft, in accordance with proposals by the defense minister, a new and comprehensive law on enlistment to the IDF and national service in accordance with a broad and up-to-date program that matches the needs of Israeli society in its diversity with the agreement of the coalition parties,” the clause reads.
Asked whether Gantz intends to advance this legislation, a Blue and White spokesperson declined to comment.