Defense Minister Israel Katz met today (Tuesday) with Deputy Chief of Staff Major General Amir Baram, Personnel Directorate Chief Major General Dado Bar Kalifa, and the Military Advocate General Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi to discuss the question of drafting more Haredim into the IDF.
The Defense Minister was presented with plans to integrate Haredim into military service in accordance with his instructions to form a new, comprehensive outline which would allow Haredim to both serve and maintain a life of Torah study and observance.
Katz stressed his commitment to ensure an effective integration of Haredi draft eligible men into the IDF on this basis, stressing his goal of ultimately drafting some 50% of a given Haredi cohort within seven years, noting the importance of the success of the tracks designed to help Haredim serve in the best way possible.
The government has been struggling to pass a draft law on this or any other basis ever since the Supreme Court declared that the prior exemptions for service violate the principles of equality and are null and void.
The numbers and terms which Haredi politicians and leaders were willing to agree to have thus far fallen short of what major Likud figures such as Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman MK Yuli Edelstein have been willing to accept.
Meanwhile, many opposition parties oppose any compromise whatsoever on a draft law, seeking to simply impose a draft on the Haredi community wholesale, with severe penalties for draft dodging.
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