Haredi rabbis end key meeting on IDF conscription bill without issuing decision |
The rabbinic leadership of the Hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction ended a Wednesday meeting on a bill to regulate ultra-Orthodox military conscription — and exempt most of the community’s young men from service — without issuing any statement on the legislation, in what was seen as a surprising move that reportedly left the faction’s own lawmakers in limbo.
In an unusual development, the faction’s lawmakers, who were waiting at the meeting’s location in Jerusalem, were not invited in to hear the rabbinic leadership’s decision after their deliberations, according to Hebrew media reports. Instead, the meeting dispersed without the MKs knowing the outcome.
Agudat Yisrael sources quoted by the Haaretz daily said that the faction, part of the Haredi United Torah Judaism party, is expected to issue a statement saying the rabbis had come to a decision but will not publish it — essentially allowing the legislation to advance while they maintain their opposition to sanctions on draft evaders.
For the past year and a half, the ultra-Orthodox leadership has pushed for a law that would largely keep its constituency out of the Israel Defense Forces, after the High Court of Justice ruled that decades-long blanket exemptions from army duty traditionally afforded to full-time Haredi yeshiva students were........