Jul 21. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Israeli army began sending its first recruitment orders to ultra-Orthodox on Sunday, in compliance with an order issued by the Supreme Court to recruit a segment of the population that until now had been virtually exempt from combat.
Prior to the June 25 order, hundreds of Haredim had staged weekly protests in Israel against what they considered an outrage by the army, despite the existence of the Netzah Yehuda battalion (withdrawn from the West Bank following numerous complaints of excessive violence against Palestinians). Part of the country’s population, on the other hand, demanded that the ultra-Orthodox participate in a process that all Israelis must go through, regardless of their status.
This friction has resulted in clashes within the Israeli government, particularly from the most ultra-conservative sector, which demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant maintain the exemptions in force.
Now, a month after the Supreme Court ruling, the IDF has begun sending out the first 1,000 conscription orders to young men in the Haredi community between the ages of 18 and 26, in the first of three such waves over a three-week period.
However, the conscription agreement still includes important exemptions. The Jerusalem Post sources are certain that none of the recruits will end up on the front lines and that young ultra-Orthodox students at the country’s yeshivot, schools where they study the holy book of the Torah, will probably be left out of the conscription process at some stage.
The Defense Ministry is therefore anticipating that it will need to send out more than 24,000 applications to screen the 3,000 Haredim it hopes to recruit at the end of all the stages of the process, according to the Israeli media’s sources. The Defense Ministry estimates that up to 6,000 Haredim could end up joining the army if necessary, but it sees this maximum as a virtually unattainable threshold.
Add Comment