The Shaked Committee is convening in the Knesset Wednesday morning to vote on the bill for drafting hareidi men and on possible changes to the Hesder track army service, for religious Zionist men.
Overnight, agreement was reached between secularist Yesh Atid and the religious-Zionist Jewish Home, according to which the Hesder track will not suffer from changes except for the lengthening of the military service chapter in the track from 16 to 17 months, as agreed in the Coalition agreement.
Hareidim up to age 26 who enlist in the IDF will be counted for the purpose of the enlistment quotas, making it possible for the hareidim to fill the quotas.
Even if they fail to meet the quotas, no sanctions will be applied against hareidim until mid-2018. This date was extended by six months, from the original date that was set for the end of 2017. In any case, the Minister of Defense will have discretion not to apply sanctions.
"We succeeded in bringing enlistment, Torah, and employment as well,” said Jewish Home sources after the agreement was reached. “Now, the mission is to assimilate hareidim in the work force. The programs for doing this already exist and the hot lines are flooded with calls from interested people. We have safeguarded the Hesder and other Zionist yeshivas, we have insisted on our principles in the important places and we led the way to solving a problem that has been unsolved from the establishment of the state of Israel.”