The women of the “Service Partnership” forum held an extended Zoom meeting on Sunday, during which they launched a unique outline that offers ways to integrate Ultra-Orthodox Haredim into military service. The forum, which includes some 4,000 women from the national religious sector whose families are in long-term reserve service, formulated the outline after consulting with military and professional officials.
The Main Outline:
Immediate 1st Order – All Haredi recruitment obligations will be summoned to the 1st order (the first time the army examines candidates), with the intention of frameworks adapted to the Haredi lifestyle.
Outstanding quotas – an exemption track for outstanding learners, similar to the model of an outstanding athlete or artist.
State benefits are conditional on service – eligibility for economic benefits such as subsidies, participation in cheap apartment sweepstakes, and more, will be given only to those who have served in the army.
In addition to presenting the outline to Knesset members, ministers and mayors, the Forum’s women plan to raise public awareness by holding rallies at the Coca-Cola Bridge and the Jerusalem Meitarim Bridge, with appeals to rabbis from religious Zionism, and more.
“The War of the Lord”
The meeting comes against the background of the security situation and the planned draft law, which according to the Forum’s women benefits the ultra-Orthodox public at the expense of all citizens. They emphasized the importance of enlisting to the IDF as a religious value, no less than a security need: “We are in an existential war. The Torah and its teachings are important values, but even enlistment to the IDF is a mitzvah war. Our enemies do not distinguish between sector and sector, and therefore there is an immediate security need in combination of Haredim in the IDF.”
The women of the Forum seek to bring about a perceptual change and to strengthen mutual responsibility between all parts of Israeli society. “The solution we proposed is fair and combines the security needs with respect for the ultra-Orthodox lifestyle.”
