Beers & Burgers: Harvey's To Go | SaltWire #harveys #burger #beer #foodbloggerJERUSALEM - Yossi Levi is a member of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, whose exemption from compulsory military service is dividing Israel and threatens to topple its government. He is also a major in the infantry reserves of the Israel Defence Forces .
"We can double it and can triple it in one, two years, and we can see a lot of haredim and it's going to be enough for the IDF," said the 33-year-old at his Jerusalem headquarters, where one wall is adorned with pictures of fallen haredi soldiers. "They don't want all of the haredim." The issue is coming to a head. As of April 1, state subsidies for draft-age men in seminaries have been suspended on the orders of the Supreme Court. The tribunal, however, granted Netanyahu's request for an extension until month's end to keep negotiating over a much-delayed blueprint for a fairer sharing of the burden of military service.
The IDF declined to comment on the conscription debate, referring policy questions to the government. Netanyahu's office had no immediate response. The prime minister told reporters on March 29 that the thinking within the ultra-Orthodox community on conscription had come a long way. "They don’t want us to be religious," said Yisrael Kaya, a haredi attending an anti-conscription protest in Jerusalem grouping a few dozen people."Therefore, we prefer to die and not to go to the army.”
When a compromise bill, setting no quotas for haredi troops in the military nor criminal penalties for such quotas going unmet, leaked to Israeli media last month, Gallant announced that he and the military brass would not back it. With the end-month deadline looming, an anti-government protest group drawing on IDF veterans, Brothers in Arms, has staged marches in haredi neighbourhoods, leading to altercations with locals.
The ultra-Orthodox are Israel’s fastest-growing minority. The black-coated haredim make up 13% of Israel's population and are due to reach 19% by 2035 given their high birth rates. Yair Lapid, a liberal ex-prime minister who now leads the parliamentary opposition, has suggested that a haredi draft should be enforced through withholding funds - rather than jail.
But Bloy, the educator, saw no such change due to the conflict. Those haredim more open to the IDF are motivated mostly by considerations pre-dating the war, such as economic factors, he said.
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