>> Read the full position paper in pdf
Some 300,000 IDF reservists were called up for duty following the outbreak of the war in Gaza after the Hamas attack on 7 October. The Defense Ministry published two bills, whereby mandatory service for men and women in combat roles will be extended to three years, the number of days reservists will serve each year will double, and the exemption age for reservists will rise to 45 for regular soldiers and to 50 for officers. In contrast, the bills make no mention of the government’s obligation to comply with Supreme Court rulings to resolve the inequality caused by the failure to draft Haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews).
These bills have rekindled the public and political controversy over the Haredi draft. This document does not offer a plan for their conscription or deal directly with the controversy, but addresses the resulting multidimensional encroachment on equality and on the independence of the judicial system.
As will be explained below, the controversy prevents an explicit anchoring of the right to equality in a Basic Law; is used for weakening the public status of the right to equality and to deliberately exacerbate the conflict between the executive and legislative branches and the judiciary; causes governments to function in a constant state of unlawfulness that undermines the rule of law; is used to justify the violation of equality of other minorities, especially Arabs; constitutes a permanent barrier blocking the reduction of socioeconomic disparities and the Haredi minority’s poverty; and ignores the violation of equality of other populations that do not wish to enlist in the army for reasons of conscience and might be punished for it.