Panel to vote on changes to law exempting Orthodox from army

The law exempting yeshiva students from military service will be transferred to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to vote on amendments, the Knesset plenum ruled Wednesday.

The panel approved handing the law over to the panel by a majority of 63 MKs. Four MKs voted against the transfer. The panel will vote on the amendments within the next two weeks.

In order to extend the validity of the law in one vote, the Knesset must complete the process up to six months before the law is set to expire.

Once the amendments have been voted on by the panel, the draft will be returned to the Knesset plenum to rule on extending the law, which is set to expire in July.

Ehud Barak's administration established the Tal Committee in 1999 to resolve problems surrounding draft exemptions for yeshiva students. However, the subsequent law took effect only in August 2002.

The law allows yeshiva students over age 22 to take one year off from their studies. During this period, they can acquire a profession or work without being drafted. At the end of the year, the students must choose between returning to full-time studies or completing abbreviated national service.

Committee members hoped the opportunity would encourage members of the ultra-Orthodox community to joint the workforce. At the time, former justice Zvi Tal admitted that the arrangement is unjust, but said the plan would be implemented for five years as a social experiment, to determine whether it helped change ultra-Orthodox society.

Last May, the High Court of Justice rejected the last appeals against the law, but also ruled that if it had not been implemented by the end of the five-year period, it could become unconstitutional. Between 2002 and 2005, only 1,400 yeshiva students - 3 percent - took a year off from their studies, and only 74 opted to fulfill national service. Haaretz could not obtain current figures from the Israel Defense Forces.

Then-chief justice Aharon Barak was unsure if the failure stemmed from a "genetic defect" in the law or from the "state's failures to provide the proper implementation tools." Two ministries went to great lengths to torpedo the initiative - the Finance Ministry, which blocked the creation of civilian national service for yeshiva students interested in remaining in the workforce, and the Defense Ministry, which demanded that 23-year-olds in the program complete lengthy service.