c. 2000 Religion News Service

JERUSALEM _ Israel’s Knesset on Monday (July 3) tentatively approved a controversial legislative package offering ultra-Orthodox yeshiva _ Orthodox religious schools _ students a shortened four-month term of military service, a move blasted by secularist critics but lauded by government supporters as the beginning of a revolution integrating the ultra-Orthodox into Israel’s military and civilian workforce.

The legislation, approved 52-43 in a crucial test vote, would enshrine into law a de facto situation that has existed since the founding of the state in which young ultra-Orthodox men can avoid Israel’s mandatory three-year term of army service by engaging in full-time religious studies.

But in a new innovation, yeshiva students would also be granted the option of leaving their religious studies at the age of 23 for a brief term of army service. Afterward, they could join the regular civilian workforce, a privilege forbidden to full-time yeshiva students.

“This represents a step forward in solving one of the most complex problems facing the state,” said Prime Minister Ehud Barak during a tumultuous Knesset debate on the issue. “I still believe with all my heart that one people should also be subject to a single draft law, but the problem is that we can’t achieve this forcibly, but only through dialogue and compromise.”

The raucous public debate waged over the proposed legislation has been anything but compromising. In fact, it has underlined more than ever the growing, bitter divisions between Israel’s secular majority and the ultra-Orthodox minority.

While army service is nearly universal among secular Israeli Jews and religious nationalists, who together comprise 90 percent of the Jewish public, ultra-Orthodox Jews have never completely accepted the legitimacy of the Israeli state and thus have tended to avoid military service.

Most Arab Israelis, who comprise about one-fifth of the total population, also are exempted from army service.

Secular opponents of the new legislation have said it will enshrine in law the current discriminatory situation. Young secular men would continue to be drafted at the age of 18 for three years while tens of thousands of young ultra-Orthodox students could serve abbreviated terms and still enter the workforce.

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish women would continue to be exempt from military service although most secular women now serve for two years in non-combat roles.

“We should declare this as a national day of mourning,” said Tommy Lapid, of the secularist Shinui movement, one of the most ardent spokesmen against the new law. “We are burying democracy and the chance for a society based on the principle of equality. This country is being given away to the ultra-Orthodox, while the secular public is told that they are the only ones who will be obliged to risk their lives.”

Supporters of the new law say an immediate move to draft yeshiva youths for a full three-year term would trigger a virtual civil war between Israel’s secular majority and the ultra-Orthodox minority.

Offering a four-month term of service would at least give more ultra-Orthodox youths a taste of military life. They would also serve for a month every year in the army reserves, easing a the burden of reserve duty for other Israelis.

But more important, proponents say, the entrance of thousands of ultra-Orthodox youths into the workforce would help reduce the economic dependency of the ultra-Orthodox community on state social welfare programs.

Currently, many full-time yeshiva students become trapped in a cycle of poverty whereby they and their large families subsist largely upon small yeshiva stipends and welfare allotments funded by the state.

“It’s perhaps a first step in the bridging of the ultra-Orthodox world and the non-Orthodox world,” said David Tal of the Shas party, which represents religious Jews of Middle Eastern origins. “Every other day someone can be heard complaining about how the ultra-Orthodox are not contributing to the economy of the state. Now there is a possibility of dealing with this issue and integrating a large part of ultra-Orthodox society into the working world.”

The bitter dispute has proven to be a difficult test of authority for Barak’s government. Against the will of many of his secular supporters, Barak has personally supported the legislation, as the lesser of two evils.

The Shas party also had threatened to withdraw from Barak’s tottering coalition if it failed to pass the legislation.

But Barak’s ultimate victory was a bittersweet triumph since the prime minister had waged his election campaign last year under the slogan of “one draft law for one people.”

“Why didn’t Barak say this before he was elected?” protested Meir Shitreet of the right-wing Likud Party. “When he was standing for elections he said one thing, and now that he is prime minister, he says something else.”

(OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)

Outside of Barak’s Jerusalem office, a handful of secular opponents of the law, members of the “Awakening” movement, spent the week leading up to the vote in a hunger strike to underline their opposition to the legislation. Some 150,000 more Israelis had also signed petitions circulated by the movement protesting the two-tiered draft system that would be formalized by the legislation.

“This is only the beginning of our struggle. This vote has launched a genuine public debate on the issue,” said movement leader Boaz Nul, just before the votes were counted.

DEA END RNS