Yair Lapid
Yair LapidFlash 90

Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid has responded to accusations that he abandoned the fight for drafting haredim into the IDF.

On Monday, Lapid suggested that the issue of drafting haredim will not occupy the next government, as part of a statement on his desire to win the election and replace Binyamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister. The liberal Hiddush organization and the Forum for Equal Burden of Service fiercely criticized what they saw as a retreat.

"To those who asked, it seems we need to explain the obvious: Yesh Atid has not and will not back down from equal service," he said. "We are the ones who led it, we are the only party that is still fighting for it in the Supreme Court and we believe that it is the right way to integrate all the sectors of the Israeli society."

Lapid also wrote on his Facebook page: "Yesterday someone asked me about it and I said that I think it is not on the table for the next government. What I meant, of course, was that I think we will win in the Supreme Court, not that we will give up on our principles."

He added that the haredim must understand that he is not trying to harass them or disturb their way of life, "but rather to address the need to write an Israeli contract for living together, in which everyone has the same rights and the same obligations."