In a stormy session at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense committee, MKs criticized recent changes in the exemption process from the IDF for religious girls.
The new changes include a cancellation of the fee for exemption as well as allowing schools to make group exemptions rather than having religious girls appear in a rabbinic court.
Numerous Knesset members claimed that these measures were designed to reduce enlistment of religious girls to the IDF, but Minister Uri Ariel(Jewish Home) who is in charge of National Service, claimed that "Nobody will teach me what devotion to duty means. We encourage girls to do national service since it is a true mission which is no less important than most roles in the army."