The Peri committee, tasked by the government to formulate legislation that would promote the integration of the ultra-Orthodox into military and national service, submitted its recommendations on Thursday, ruling that all haredi men who are of draft age must serve in the Israel Defense Forces or perform national service. The cabinet is expected to debate the issue during its next meeting on Sunday.
The committee, headed by Science and Technology Minister Yaakov Peri (Yesh Atid), also ruled that haredi youths who refuse to comply with the mandatory draft, as well as rabbis who condone draft-dodging, would be subject to punitive measures.
"This is a historic amendment to the Security Service Law that states everyone must shoulder the burden," Peri said on Thursday. Yesh Atid faction Chairman MK Ofer Shelah added that the reform "would change the ground rules of Israeli society."
The reform outlines a legislative alternative to the Tal Law, which sought to regulate yeshiva students' exemption from IDF service and expired in August 2012. The bill states that starting in 2017, all haredi youths ages 17-18 would have to join the military or national service. Each of the IDF's three major annual draft classes would include 6,000 haredim, and each class would exempt some 1,800 yeshiva students who meet the criteria for "exceptional religious scholars," providing they continue their studies until the age of 26.
The committee recommended giving yeshiva students the option to postpone their draft until the age of 21, but only if they can prove that they study for 45 hours a week or more. Yeshiva heads who file false reports about their students' eligibility will face criminal charges.
Haredim who are granted a deferral over their studies would not be allowed to work, but those willing to receive professional training through the various courses offered by the Economy and Trade Ministry, would be allowed to study for only 30 hours a week.
The committee further recommended that haredi youth who fail to report to a military recruitment center following their first draft notice, which is usually sent out to all 17-year-olds in Israel, will immediately be classified as deserters. As such, the state will deny them the benefits usually afforded yeshiva students, as well as flag their passports with the Interior Ministry and Israel Airport Authority, barring them from leaving the country.
The Peri committee also recommended that starting 2016, the men's compulsory IDF service would be cut from three years to 32 months, and the women's service would be extended from two years to 28 months. The report also supports extending hesder yeshiva soldiers' service from 16 to 17 months and crafting a similar arrangement for future haredi soldiers.
While the report recommends denying government benefits to individuals and yeshivot that refuse to comply with the draft law, it also recommends offering monetary incentives to yeshivot that encourage their students to serve their country.
Haredi MKs up in arms
The committee's work has already encountered fierce opposition by the ultra-Orthodox community: last week, in what was described by some haredi leaders as "only the beginning," some 30,000 haredim rioted at the Jerusalem IDF recruitment center in protest of the future enlistment decree.
Following the release of the committee's recommendation, the protest's organizers, who are members of the Edah Haredit -- an ultra-Orthodox, anti-Zionist organization that represents much of the Ashkenazi haredi community -- vowed that the next haredi protest would top 100,000 people.
"We have all seen how the public is willing to heed the call [to fight the draft decree] and now the sky is the limit. The next protest might take a little time to organize, but it will happen," one of the protest's organizers said.
Haredi Knesset members blasted the recommendations Thursday, calling them "destructive": United Torah Judaism MK Meir Porush called the proposed reform "a miserable bill designed to crush the world of Torah. The future of our existence is in danger. There should be Knesset committees to reform the secular education [system], which creates criminals and murderers, rather than recruiting yeshiva scholars for army service," he said.
United Torah Judaism MK Yakov Litzman also leveled harsh criticism at the committee.
"The enlistment reform bill is detached from reality and will not be implemented. The value of Torah studies does not need anyone's affirmation or endorsement. We have always protected those who seek to study the Torah and we will not allow them to end up in jail."
Shas Chairman MK Aryeh Deri and the party's spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, have remained mum on the matter so far.
Meanwhile, Yisrael Beytenu announced that unless the reform is revised to include a similar draft outline for minorities and Israeli Arabs, it would vote against it.
"While the bill includes some important amendments [to the Security Service Law]," Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch told Army Radio, "it still lacks several key articles, especially regarding the minorities' service. Unless the bill is revised we won't be able to vote for it."
Housing Minister Uri Ariel (Habayit Hayehudi) said that his party will not support the reform unless the articles pertaining to hesder yeshiva soldiers are removed from the bill, saying they go against the coalition agreement.
The campaign for burden equality was also vexed by the recommendation, especially by the articles stating that the reform will only take effect in 2017: [Yesh Atid Chairman] Yair Lapid is about to miss a historic opportunity. Instead of recruiting haredim immediately, as mandated by the High Court of Justice, the reform offers an abstract outline for service in three years, by which time another government will be in office and the law will become null and void."
Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein has asked the government for two weeks to study the committee's recommendations. The cabinet is scheduled to debate the reform on Sunday, but it may choose to postpone the debate pending Weinstein's review.
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