Israel Matzav

Some relative sanity in the controversy over the Haredi draft

At least some proponents of drafting Haredim are awakening to the reality that the bill in its current form is likely to provoke - at the least - mass civil disobedience.

According to the daft legislation, if the government target for haredi enlistment for 2017 is not met, then the Law for the Security Services mandating obligatory military service for all Jewish men of military age will be applied to haredi men as well, which until now has not been the case. In other words, haredi men who avoid the draft could face up to two years in prison.

But if in 2017 thousands of haredi men refuse to serve, then, says [Prof. Yedidia Stern, who heads the Israel Democracy Institute’s project on religion and state], serious damage will be done to the notion of the rule of law – as it will be impossible to imprison them.

“You can’t use the law to threaten something which you cannot implement, because it will make a joke out of the principle of the rule of law, it will become a dead letter,” he says.

“No one is going to imprison these people, it will never happen.”

...

The potential for serious societal strife is not one to be taken lightly.

Just last week, several thousand haredi men rioted violently in several locations around the country against freezes in payments to some yeshiva students, and against the legislative efforts of the government in general.

The rioters came from a hardline minority grouping, not the mainstream haredi community whose leadership has thus far refrained from calling for mass demonstrations.

People such as Stern, as well as organizations such as Hiddush, a religious freedom lobbying group, fear that the law will simply be changed in 2017, when there will most likely be a new government, because the threat of communal violence and civil disobedience will prevent the implementation of the law currently being drafted.

And the response from those who want to impose criminal sanctions? They don't have one.

MK Ofer Shelah of Yesh Atid, who has been one of the key figures behind the current law, insists that the law cannot be legislated through the prism of what will happen if the haredi public is not willing to accept the law.

“Laws are not made like this,” he says. “The general public has let it be known that it will no longer accept a situation in which a community, de facto, is not obligated by the Law for the Security Services.

And the High Court has said this, too,” he continues, noting that the court struck down the Tal Law because it discriminated against the majority of the population who are obligated to serve.

Shelah says the law was formulated in the best possible legal manner, to bring as many people from the haredi community “to serve and work and be a partner in Israeli society without changing their lifestyle.” However, he is not willing to contemplate what might happen if by the end of the interim period of the law, haredi men refuse to enlist.

“The threat that haredim will not accept or fulfill the law of the State of Israel is not acceptable to me,” he says bluntly. “That isn’t acceptable in a state run by the rule of law.”

“I don’t know what will happen if they [refuse to serve]. Why do I have to say?” he responds, when asked about the viability of implementing the imprisonment of thousands of draft refusers.

If this reminds you of the mentality that we have to make peace with the 'Palestinians' because we want it so badly that they must want it too... you're right.

Labels: Haredim, IDF

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:43 PM