Posted on 06/02/24
| News Source: i24
Israel's Supreme Court convened on Sunday to discuss the Conscription Law and drafting ultra-Orthodox Yeshiva students, with Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara seeking to draft 3,000 students by the end of 2024 as a starting number.
"We are in a fateful moment," said Attorney Eliad Sharaga, from the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, one of the petitioners who demanded the government begin drafting members of the ultra-Orthodox community.
"This is an existential question," he said. "The country does not have enough soldiers to fight and to win. Everyone must serve and risk their lives."
Attorney Avi Malikovski, who represents the attorney general, said that the number 3,000 was just a start. "The attorney general believes that the army should strive to recruit as many Yeshiva students as possible," he said, adding that "3,000 is not a final number, it is a minimal number that does not yet reflect the value of equality, but there is a reality on the ground."
Acting Supreme Court President Judge Uzi Vogelman was joined by judges Yitzhak Amit, Noam Sohlberg, Daphne Barak-Erez, Yael Willner, Ofer Grosskopf, Alex Stein, and Gila Canfi-Steinitz. The current discussion is a continuation one that took place at the end of February with an expanded panel of judges.
Judge Sohlberg said the conscription of 3,000 Yeshiva students "must be carried out," although he lamented that he "was very disappointed with this number."
The government was represented by attorney Doron Taubman, after the government and the attorney general failed to reach agreements on the government's position earlier this year.
Ultra-Orthodox members of Israeli society often do not join the military, continuing a longstanding policy of not conscripting students of Yeshivas, or Jewish schools of advanced Torah study.
Critics of the policy say that ultra-Orthodox men must serve in the military to reduce the strain on the rest of the population, much of which serves in the military's reserve forces. The current war brought the issue forward, as many Israeli citizens have served in the reserves.
On the other hand, supporters of the Israeli policy say it is protected under the freedom of religion. Extremist members of the Jerusalem Faction, an ultra-Orthodox group, vowed to protest conscription.
The issue also threatens to topple the government, as many coalition members in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government represent the ultra-Orthodox sector of Israeli society.