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Nov 27, 2025
taking the initiative on the draft issue
I have said for a long time that the Haredi community should be proactively fighting back regarding the draft law issue and the attacks on them and taking the initiative.. Instead of the entire country ganging up on the Haredim, rightfully or wrongfully - whatever your position might be, and them just making up excuses and reasons (different ones each time) why they shouldn't be drafted, they should be taking the initiative in some way and going on the attack.
What does going on the attack mean?
In my opinion, going on the attack means not just complaining about the campaign while also complaining that "they should first draft all the Arabs and the come to us" or "there are more draft dodgers in Tel Aviv, deal with them first", or other similar kvetching I have heard.. Rather, do something about it.
What is there to do about it? Go to the Supreme Court with a suit against the government (and/or the Attorney General and/or whoever else might be relevant) to force them to draft the Arabs and not just ignore them. Sue the government et al to go after the draft dodgers in a more serious manner. Sue the government to look at the Hesder programs to determine if they are also not sharing the burden equally considering the shorter army service they do. Sue the government for any other shortages or discrepancies in service by any other minority population.
Will that upset lots of people? Sure. That would be the point, but it would also ponit out publicly the unfairness, from the Haredi perspective, in goign only after the Haredim.
Stop complaning and do something about it.
Well, they might finally be doing something about it.
Some Haredi organization named Emes L'Yaakov is doing just that. They have petitioned the Ministry of Defense and other relevant parties with a demand to stop the illegal discrimination between different groups that do not get drafted to the army. This petition of the Ministry of Defense is a leadup to filing a petition with the courts.
The petition claims that while yeshiva students who do not get drafted have been slapped with financial sanctions and limitations losing subsidies and grants, while other students who did not induct into the army continue to enjoy their personal benefits uninterrupted. Additionally, Haredi educational institutions have been losing funding for students who were not drafted while Universities and the like do not get docked for students who did not enlist.
The petition also complains about the Dati Leumi community saying they draft for less time but have had no sanctions placed on them and on their institutions. Anyone not drafting equally should get their funding cut proportionally.
And if the government does not draft other minorities, they should impose similar sanctions on those communities similar to sanctions being imposed on the Haredi community.
the petition says that if immediate action is not taken, they will go to the Supreme Court
source: Kol Rega
I can see this backfiring, as people get even more upset with the Haredim over this attack, but it would really bring the issue to the forefront and not leave it as just a Haredi issue.
I also think it does not go far enough, but maybe it is good as a first step with a plan to raise the pressure further down the road. They should be suing for discrimination and selective enforcement. Sue the government to draft the Arabs. Sue the government to go after draft dodgers in a more hard handed manner. Sue the government to cancel the inequal hesder arrangement.
If they would be wildly successful, it could also backfire because then everyone is equally punished and equally drafted so they have nothing left to complain about, and forcing them use more enforcement will end up with more enforcement against them too. But they would have to be wildly sucecssful for that to happen which honestly seems unlikely.
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There is no other group, other than the Arabs and Hareidim who are exempt simply on the basis of belonging to that group. The Arabs are a separate problem, that no one really knows how to solve. Individual draft dodgers are simply that, individual draft dodgers, and if you look at the statistics, despite what everyone says about "the chilonim from Tel Aviv" they do not serve less than those living in other big cities. As for Hesder, it is those Hesder graduates who are doing hundreds of days of Miluim, and suffered a disproportionate number of casualties. That was always the expectation- their initial service would be shorter, but they would make up for it over the course of 25 years of miluim. So please don't drag in Hesder (or "Tel Aviv") to justify the unjustifiable Hareidi position.
ReplyDeleteI've been saying this for a while. The government should've cleaned up the draft dodgers and "conscientous objectors" and then turned to the Chareidim and say "Okay, you're next."
ReplyDeleteThe Hesder argument is weak. Yes, they serve less time in the army but they also spend time learning and isn't that what the Chareidim are claiming the army will take away from them? Hesder boys also spend decades doing miluim and have shown up to fight in this war disproportionally. So no, there's no argument there.
As for the Arabs, there should be a national service option for them, even if it's servning in their own communities. But even if not, the Arabs work. They participate in the economy and serve in all sectors of society while the Chareidim sit up, suck off the treasury and expect people to feel grateful for that. It's just not equivalent.
Arab unemployment is very high.
DeleteAlso, the "draft dodgers" thing is a myth.