Ya'alon considers postponing haredi draft

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon is considering postponing the draft of thousands of yeshiva students who were issued conscription orders, the State declared Thursday.

"In accordance with the (haredi) draft bill, thousands of orders to recruit yeshiva students who were born in 1994-1995 were issued, as the first ones were ordered to appear starting August 18," the governmental statement noted, adding that seeing as the draft bill can "radically change the legal status (of haredim), the State is considering to postpone their enlistment."

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The statement further noted that the defense minister had decided to hold off his decision on the matter.

"A policy by which these students are drafted is at this point incongruent with the bill and might even jeopardize governmental efforts to regulate the issue."

The State addressed the issue following several petitions filed with the High Court of Justice in the wake of the expiration of the Tal Law. The petitions insisted that due to the expiration, the State must either recruit haredim, or discontinue funding to 54,000 yeshiva students.

One of the counselors with the prosecution said that "postponing the recruitment… will be in complete opposition to previous High Court rulings. It will be a decision that is not worth the paper on which it is printed and it would be best if Ya'alon decided against postponement."

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