Israel’s government cabinet has approved a bill extending mandatory military service from 32 months to 36 months. The vote followed one by the Security Cabinet overnight Friday, which likewise voted to extend mandatory military service to 36 months for the next eight years.
The cabinet passed the measure despite a warning from Attorney General Gali Baharav Miara, who cautioned the ministers that the law violates the basic law for equality.
Baharav Miara said until haredi men are also drafted to military service, the law as it stands represents a violation of the basic law.
“Increasing the burden on those who serve without simultaneously taking action to recruit yeshiva students to distribute the burden will not be constitutional,” she wrote in her opinion.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told the Knesset plenum last week that 3,000 haredi soldiers will be drafted to the military by next summer.
“Our goal is to draft all those who can be recruited by law,” Gallant said. “This is how we work. Ultimately, the process will be gradual — it has not been done for 76 years,” he pointed out.
Since the rebirth of the State of Israel in 1948, the existing status quo has exempted haredi men from the mandatory draft.
Secular Israeli men are also exempt for various reasons as well, but those cases are rarely reported by the mainstream media. Up to this point, the only populations subject to IDF mandatory service at age 18 included Jews, Druze and Circassians. Bedouin Israelis and some Arab Israelis are allowed to serve if they choose to do so.
However, there are also cases of conscientious objectors and some cases of celebrities who would otherwise be subject to the draft, but instead refuse to serve.
