Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid Party) said Sunday that his proposed bill that would deny voting rights to those who refuse to report for Israel Defense Forces enlistment would not apply to Arabs.
“The Arab public in the State of Israel isn’t summoned to enlist, so it doesn’t apply to them,” Lapid told the Kan News public channel.
The legislation that intends to deny ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, Jewish men the right to vote for the Knesset “applies only to people who received a draft notice, are healthy, can come to the induction base and chose not to,” he said.
According to the Israeli Security Service Law, also known as the Israeli Defense Service Law, all citizens and permanent residents are equally obligated to report for military or national service. However, the IDF does not conscript Arab citizens, only inducting those who volunteer.
The right to vote is “not sacred,” Lapid told Kan on Sunday. “In a democracy, there are rights and obligations, and one depends on the other; you can’t separate them.”
The Sephardic ultra-Orthodox Shas Party accused the Yesh Atid Party leader of exposing “his true face and the depth of his hatred for Jews who observe the Torah and its commandments.
“Yair Lapid rushed to clarify that he did not intend to revoke the voting rights of Arabs but only of the ultra-Orthodox,” Shas said. “According to Lapid, Jews who love the Land of Israel, who study Torah and pray daily for the safety of Israeli soldiers, are worth less than Arabs, some of whom support Palestinian terrorism. A disgrace and a shame.”
Lawmaker Meir Porush, who represents Agudat Yisrael, the Chassidic component of the Ashkenazi Haredi United Torah Judaism Party, accused Lapid of antisemitism.
Lapid “has ideas that antisemites overseas do not dare to say out loud,” Porush charged in a statement. “Will Lapid and [Yisrael Beiteinu Party leader Avigdor] Liberman’s next law be a ban on Haredi Jews traveling on Israeli roads because the asphalt has been paved with state funds?”
Exemption of Haredi yeshivah students from IDF service
Lapid spoke ahead of a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee discussion on a draft law that is expected to regulate exemption of Haredi yeshivah students from IDF service.
Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth released the draft legislation’s text on Thursday ahead of the discussions, which are expected to continue into Tuesday.
“Generations before us and those that will come after us are watching. This is a law that belongs to the entire State of Israel,” Bismuth said in opening remarks on Monday.
“Beyond the security need, the bill carries a powerful statement coming out of the Knesset about the importance of Torah study. There will be changes in the bill. Anyone who opposes it will be proving that he prefers petty political games over the national interest,” he said.
Lapid denounced Bismuth’s proposal as a “disgraceful evasion law” and a “betrayal of everyone who fought and sacrificed in the past two years.”
Several members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition, including lawmakers of the Religious Zionism Party and one MK from the premier’s Likud Party, also voiced concerns with the draft.
“The purpose of this legislation is to preserve the coalition, certainly not to mobilize [soldiers],” said Likud’s Yuli Edelstein, whom Netanyahu removed as chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in October.
“The result will be a harm to the security of the state,” Edelstein warned.
Israel’s Supreme Court ruled last year that following the expiry of an exemption law in 2023, the military must begin drafting Haredi men, and the IDF this year began initiating criminal proceedings against ultra-Orthodox draft candidates who fail to report for enlistment.
Netanyahu’s Haredi partners, Shas and United Torah Judaism, exited the government in July over the issue, leaving the coalition without a clear Knesset majority.
Netanyahu in a speech to the Knesset on Oct. 20 said the government would advance legislation to enlist 10,000 Haredi yeshivah students within two years, calling the proposal “a genuine revolution.
“We have the example of the Hasmonean Brigade,” he said. “These bold fighters enlisted in the IDF as Haredim and will be discharged as Haredim, and we will add more tracks that will make this possible.”
