Time for equal treatment
The Deputy President of Israel’s Supreme Court, Justice Noam Solberg, together with four other judges, is to be congratulated on having ruled to prohibit the granting of financial advantages to those who refuse to serve in Israel’s Defense Forces (IDF).
The benefits currently derived by haredim who dodge the draft include reductions on homes purchases, subsidized day care centres, lower fares on public transport and reduced city taxes.
Moshe Gafni, leader of the haredi Degel Ha-Torah party, responded to the Supreme Court ruling by saying: “They systematically hit those who study Torah”.
The ruling, of course, has nothing to do with Torah study, but simply insists that financial privileges should not be granted to those who abscond from miliary service.
The list of those eligible to pay reduced city taxes, incidentally, does not include university students, who are not granted this sectorial advantage! Neither are they exempt, of course, from military service.
Never in the 3,700-history of the Jewish people has there been a precedent whereby those who studied Torah were exempt from defending their country.
Indeed, according to Rabbi Yehudah (Mishnah Sotah 8:7) and Maimonides (Laws of Kings 7:4), in a mandatory war — defined as a war for Israel’s survival, defending against an attacking enemy, or commanded wars such as against Amalek – all are obligated to go out to fight, “even a bridegroom from his room and a bride from her canopy”.
It is interesting to note that in their view women were not exempt from military service when the future of the nation was at stake!
During the past few years, since Hamas’s genocidal attack on October 7, 2023, reservists have been called to leave their families and jobs more often and for longer periods than at any time in Israel’s history. The IDF, as Israel’s Chief of Staff Zamir has stated, is desperately short of soldiers and is in danger of collapsing. A further 15,000 soldiers are needed.
According to the Haredi Institute for Public Affairs, the haredi sector of Israel’s population was 12.3% in 2023 and numbered over 1.2 million people (up 20.2% from 5 years earlier).
This year just 537 haredim enlisted in the IDF’s haredi units, the largest number ever! That situation cannot be allowed to continue.
Israelis will go to the polls this autumn and elect a new government. There is little doubt that the exemption of haredim from military service on the grounds that “Torah study is their profession” will no longer be tolerated by most voters as grounds for exemption from military service. The game is over and any political party that wants to be elected will have to take that into consideration.