Deri Issues Ultimatum to Advance Bill Exempting Torah Students from Military Service This Week

Shas chairman Aryeh Deri demanded today, Monday, that the Knesset put to a vote the Basic Law that would grant Torah students the same rights as those serving in the army, as early as next week. Deri conditioned his faction’s support for advancing other bills on this demand.

"This will be a historic declaration of the supreme value of Torah and of the contribution of Torah students to the people of Israel and to its security," he said at the start of his faction meeting. The proposed law, Basic Law: Torah Study, is intended to replace the enlistment law.

Last week, the attorney general, Gali Baharav Miara, spoke out against initiatives promoted by the government in a speech at the Israel Bar Association conference, and one of the issues she raised was attempts to exempt the ultra-Orthodox community from military service. "The law in Israel is clear, the duty to serve in the IDF applies to everyone. The burden on those who serve is enormous. The chief of staff is crying out for soldiers and this can no longer be ignored. The state cannot ignore the law requiring everyone to enlist and the harm to equality," Baharav Miara said.

"It is not possible to cooperate, from a legal standpoint, with a situation in which, with one hand, the government increases the burden on those who serve, while with the other hand it allows mass draft evasion, and some would even say encourages it. The government’s disavowal of court decisions harms enlistment. Enforcement could have been much more effective. Those who serve, not those who evade, are paying the price," she added.