On Thursday of last week, the government failed to propose a law regulating the exemption of yeshivah students from military service by the final deadline set by the Supreme Court.
Therefore, on Monday 1 April, the exemption ended, 76 years after it was first agreed upon by David Ben-Gurion (two months before Israel’s official foundation) to allow 400 students to continue studying Torah while other young Jewish men were drafted to fight in the War of Independence.
The immediate implications of this are still unclear. The IDF is too busy with its wars to start drafting the now 66,000 Charedi men between the ages of 18 and 26 who are no longer exempt from service. Some of the government funding for their yeshivahs will gradually be reduced, but the strictly-Orthodox parties that represent their interests are in no rush to abandon their positions of power in the Netanyahu government.
The Charedi rabbis are furious with the prime minister, who has failed to deliver on his promise in the coalition agreement to pass an exemption law. But the Charedi politicians have advised them to wait before bailing on Netanyahu and bringing down his government. He is to have one more chance in the Knesset’s summer session, starting on 19 May 19.
