Israeli Parliament Votes on Controversial Military Conscription Bill Followed by Angry Scenes
JERUSALEM — On Monday, the Knesset of Israel proceeded with the preparation of a disputative law towards the draft of the ultra-Orthodox religious students to the army. Heated debates and aggressive, emotional confrontations were characteristic of this session, especially since some families of the Gaza hostages called for even more severe actions to release their dear ones.
This legislative move was after the centrists’ former general Benny Gantz resigned from the government due to differences in the goals of the Gaza war. This reflects the deepening influence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing allies.
The conscription bill, which passed the vote during the night and will need further readings and committee approval, will gradually incorporate ultra-Orthodox Jews into the army. It has been privileged in projecting it has never been involved in the military drafts. Gantz described 2022 as a reform initiated by the previous cabinet. Still, he has changed his stance and claims that the presented bill is no longer enough to satisfy the military’s current human resources requirements.
Yoav Gallant, Defense Minister, was the last of the ex-generals after Gantz and his ally, a former army chief Gadi Eisenkot, voted against the bill, officially defying the government. Secularist parties of the governing coalitions, usually against extensive conscription, supported the bill to initiate changes during the revision stage.
The law reform will not allow an increase in the number of ultra-Orthodox contracted by the army and will provide options instead of military service. “We have a great opportunity that should not be missed. The ultra-Orthodox public must not be pushed into a corner,” pointed Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, one of the pro-settler parties in the coalition.
The problem of ultra-orthodox conscription has always been an agenda in Israel, where nomination is regarded as a fundamental principle of defence. That is why the discussion has only intensified, given the conflict in Gaza in which more than 600 Israeli soldiers were killed.
“There are those who supported it then and are now against it because they see it as wrong for Israel now, and there are also those who opposed it then and are now for converting it because they see a chance to change it,” said Assaf Shapira the Director of the political reform program in Israel Democracy institute.
At least disputes erupted at the plenary sitting of the finance committee alone relatives of hostages attacked Smotrich, urging him to go out of his way to free the restrained members. Inbal Tzach, cousin of Tal Shoham, one of 253 Israeli and foreign hostages kidnapped on October 7 and given to Hamas, called upon ministers like the one from the Likud party led by Smotrich to focus on the issue.
Smotrich, who has come out strongly against any deal with Hamas and who has famously refused ceasefire proposals to facilitate hostage exchanges for Palestinian prisoners, contemptuously dismissed the families’ appeal as mere electioneering gimmick. ”I will not harm the State of Israel and its population,” he stressed. Therefore, there is no way I will stop the war immediately when Hamas’ destruction is almost inevitable since doing so will threaten the existence and survival of Israel.
The conscription bill and the hostage crisis are proof of Netanyahu’s political reality of a party that depends on hard-right parties while facing state and family pressure during the continuation of the Gaza War.
