Israel extends Wehrdienst service by approximately 4 months
**Israel's Government Extends Compulsory Military Service by Four Months Due to Military's Need for More Soldiers
Israeli radio reported that the Israeli government has extended the duration of compulsory military service by four months due to the military's need for more soldiers. New recruits will now have to serve for 36 months instead of the previous 32, according to the legislative proposal. The bill must still be approved by the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. Women's military service remains unchanged.
After nine months of Gaza war and in view of the tense conflict situation in the occupied West Bank and the growing war threat on the border with Lebanon, the Israeli military is facing limited personnel resources. For the war against the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the army mobilized hundreds of thousands of reservists and kept many of them for months at their units at the front. For Israeli society, this represents a burden because fathers are absent from their families and well-trained labor forces are missing from their businesses.
The legislative proposal on extending military service should pass smoothly through parliament as Likud Party, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and its coalition partners have the necessary majority. However, the proposal increases the anger in the majority society over the military service exemption for strictly religious young men.
The Supreme Court had abolished this exemption in a ruling last month. However, the passage of a law regulating the recruitment of the strictly religious failed so far due to the rejection of Netanyahu's ultra-religious coalition partners. In principle, about 60,000 so-called Haredim would now be subject to military service. The army recently announced that it would issue 3,000 draft orders for the strictly religious this year.**
The extended military service duration, now 36 months, is a direct response to Israel's military needs during times like the Gaza War and the escalating conflict in the West Bank and Lebanon border. Despite the ongoing tension and potential war threats, strictly religious young men continue to be exempt from military service, sparking societal anger.
