Some 1,000 of the 3,000 ultra-Orthodox men who enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces over the past year were assigned to combat units and hundreds more joined combat auxiliary units, a military official revealed Wednesday.
Speaking at a meeting of the special ministerial committee debating the haredi conscription bill, Brig.-Gen. Eran Shani, head of the Human Resource Planning and Management Division at the IDF's Personnel Directorate, said that ultra-Orthodox recruits "are smart and talented individuals who do amazing work. Their contribution to the IDF cannot be disputed."
The issue of mandatory military service for the ultra-Orthodox sector has dogged Israeli politics for years. Many in the ultra-Orthodox community believe military service should be secondary to Torah study. However, secular Israelis oppose being expected to shoulder the burden without any contribution by a substantial sector of the population.
Most recently the United Torah Judaism party demanded that the current conscription exemption afforded to haredi men be extended, threatening to exit the coalition unless the measure was approved.
A coalition-sponsored amendment to the bill passed its first parliamentary reading on Tuesday, but United Torah Judaism said it still falls short of meeting its demands. The special ministerial committee debating the bill was tasked with preparing it for its second and third readings, in hopes of appeasing the Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox party.
Shani further explained that the IDF objects to an article in the current draft of the bill that recommends lowering the age in which enlistment exemptions are given.
"In the previous amendment to the law, the exemption age was lowered to 24, and we lost several hundred potential recruits. If the exemption age is lowered to 21, I'm afraid we will lose a few hundred more. Even though these are older, married men, they are excellent people the IDF wants to recruit."
Attorney Dror Granit, who represents the Justice Ministry on the committee, said the current draft of the bill was constitutional and therefore defendable in the event of a High Court of Justice appeal.
He noted that several key issues still needed clarification, such as recruitment goals and the exact definition of who is haredi and eligible for the exemption.
Uri Sheinin, of the Employment Division in the Finance Ministry's Budgets Department, said that "the contribution of the haredi sector in the workforce to the state budget in 2050 may near the current defense budget – 30 to 50 billion shekels ($22-37 billion) a year, which is about 6-10% of gross domestic product."
Sheinin stressed that integrating the haredim in the workforce "is one of the most important and dramatic things the government can to in favor of Israel's economy."
