Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said Monday that “recruitment into the Israeli army is an existential security need.”
He added: "It will be necessary to recruit at least 10,000 Haredi youth, and they must be recruited quickly."
He continued: "We will move before the Ministry of Defense, and we will make sure that enough orders are sent so that there is a sufficient number of soldiers."
On Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant agreed to send nearly a thousand recruitment orders to Haredi men next Sunday, in the first step towards implementing the Supreme Court of Justice decision issued last June, which officially ended the exemption of this sect from service in the army.
According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Defense, the Israeli army intends to send a thousand recruitment orders in 3 stages, in order to achieve its goal of 3,000 Haredi recruits this year.
The statement stated that the army will conduct a "learning process" at the end of each time, stressing that the remaining two thousand conscription orders will be sent in the coming weeks.
Last June 25, the Supreme Court decided to oblige the Haredim to conscript into the army, and to deny financial aid to religious institutions whose students refuse military service.
Who are the "Haredim"?
The Haredi sect constitutes about 13 percent of Israel's population of approximately 9.9 million people.
Haredi youth do not serve in the army and say they devote their lives to studying Torah in schools and yeshivas, to preserve “the identity of the people.”
The law requires every Israeli male and female over the age of 18 to serve in the military.
The exclusion of the Haredim from service has always sparked controversy over the past decades, but their failure to serve in the military in conjunction with the ongoing war on Gaza and the losses of the Israeli army has increased the intensity of the controversy, as secular parties demand that the religious people participate in “bearing the burdens of war.”
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