The committee tasked with drafting a replacement to the Tal Law are set to recommend that the requirement that members of Israeli minorities carry out national service be implemented gradually.
By
Jonathan Lis and
Jack Khoury
|
Jun.28, 2012 | 8:49 PM
Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that he
would only support a law over IDF enlistment and national service if it
applies to every Israeli citizen, including Israel's Arab population and
the ultra-Orthodox.
""I will not bring a law to a vote which does not also require equal
enlistment for the Ultra-Orthodox and Arabs," Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu was responding to the news on Thursday that the Plesner
Committee, tasked with drafting a replacement for the Tal Law that
exempts yeshiva students from mandatory military service, will
recommend that every Israeli citizen who is not mandated to carry out
military service should carry out civil service, but that this should be
only implemented gradually.
The recommendation is expected to gradually increase the number of
people from the minority sectors carrying out national service to 6,000
by the year 2016. At the same time, the committee will recommend that
the government mandate a committee to thoroughly examine the issues
involved in applying the principle of "service for all" in the
long-term.
Earlier, coalition members Yisrael Beitenu and HaBayit HaYehudi announced that they were leaving the Plesner Committee, as it was "favoring the Israeli-Arab public."
Meanwhile, a source close to Netanyahu said that the prime minster will
meet on Friday with the head of the Kadima faction, Minister Shaul
Mofaz, in order to see, "How to get out of the mess that the Plesner
Committee has got us into."
The Tal Law, which the High Court of Justice declared unconstitutional in February, is to expire in August.
