Charedim Must Be Drafted By IDF, Israel's Defense Minister Says

By Arutz-7
Posted on 02/28/24 | News Source: Arutz-7

A new proposal for a bill that would end the blanket exemption given to Charedim should only be promoted with the consent of all of the parties in the coalition, including the haredi parties themselves, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement to the press on Wednesday evening.

The speech was Gallant's first public address on the issue after a series of legal, legislative, and security demands brought it to the fore earlier this month.

Gallant said that there was a "real and direct" need to lengthen the service of mandatory and reserve IDF soldiers but that "the war has proven that everyone must enter under the stretcher."

The issue of "sharing the burden" was a "national challenge for 75 years," but Israel was facing a challenge the likes of which it had not faced in 75 years – and now was the time to make unprecedented decisions, Gallant said.

"Without physical existence, there is no spiritual existence," Gallant said, referring to charedi Torah study in yeshivot.

The defense minister called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to lead a joint effort in the coalition and, perhaps even with the support of the opposition, to bring forward a plan for haredi IDF service. He added that any plan that was accepted by all parties in the coalition would be acceptable to him, but that he would not bring forward a plan that was not accepted by all of them. This includes National Unity, the centrist party that joined the coalition after the war began.