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    • Extension of compulsory military service in Israel to 36 months discussed in the Knesset – Israel News
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    Extension of compulsory military service in Israel to 36 months discussed in the Knesset – Israel News

    Idris Bevan Posted on

    The Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee (FADC) met on Wednesday for its first discussion of a Defense Ministry bill that would extend the mandatory service period for men in the Israel Defense Forces by four months, for combat soldiers in general from 32 to 36 months, and for civilian soldiers from 28 to 32 months.

    The bill passed its first reading in the Knesset in July and is now being prepared for second and third readings.

    To compensate for the increased burden on citizens caused by conscription, soldiers will receive an increased income starting from the 33rd month, and soldiers who are currently in the middle of their conscription and now have to serve four months longer will receive an additional salary in addition to the increased income. The amount of the income and salary has yet to be determined. The law is temporary and will apply for five years.

    While this is not a draft bill on conscription for Haredim, which the FADC is also preparing, the two issues are linked in that both aim to increase the manpower of the Israel Defense Forces to meet increased security requirements and reduce the burden on reservists.

    Several lawmakers, including committee chairman Yuli Edelstein, said during Wednesday’s session that they would prefer to combine the two bills into one larger one. Others, such as United Right leader Gideon Sa’ar, argued that the two should remain separate because extending conscription was an urgent measure that could immediately ease pressure on reservists, while conscripting Haredi soldiers would take time.

    View of a plenary session in the assembly hall of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, August 5, 2024. (Source: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

    Other lawmakers, such as Yoav Toporovsky (Yesh Atid) and Gadi Eisenkot (National Unity), argued that the draft bill to extend the military service should only apply for one year as an emergency measure, instead of five years as in the current proposal. The Israel Defense Forces, the Defense Ministry and the FADC should develop a comprehensive plan within this year that includes Haredim and other minorities, Eisenkot added.

    Several lawmakers criticized at the start of the meeting what they saw as a lackluster effort to call up the first group of 1,000 Haredi conscripts. The conscripts were called up for initial screenings on Monday and Tuesday, but only 48 of about 1,000 showed up, although about 200 initially responded that they would comply with the summons, said Brigadier General Shai Tayeb of the IDF’s Human Resources Planning Department. Tayeb pointed out that there is “enormous pressure” within Haredi society to avoid the call. Dozens of extremist Haredim demonstrated outside the IDF’s recruitment center on Monday and Tuesday, and some even managed to enter the base.

    Relieve reservists

    Eran Yosef, deputy legal adviser to the Defense Ministry, explained during the meeting that conscripts would only be drafted for 30 months starting July 1, in light of changes to the law that had already been passed years ago. This was ineffective because the Israel Defense Forces’ conscription system works in four-month cycles and the 30-month mark would mess this up. Yosef argued that the law therefore had to be changed in any case and that the Israel Defense Forces had to implement this as soon as possible.

    A large number of the IDF soldiers on conscription whose terms of service ended since the outbreak of war on October 7 remained as reservists in their units, which were deployed under an emergency call-up. The bill would make this unnecessary, as it would instead simply extend their service obligation. However, some lawmakers, such as Yesh Atid leader and opposition leader Yair Lapid, have pointed out that the conscripts would earn far less during the additional four months of service than they would have earned as reservists, and that the real purpose of the bill is therefore simply to save the state money by paying soldiers less.

    Yosef countered that argument during Wednesday’s meeting, arguing that the emergency call-up measure for conscripts whose service has ended is a “Band-Aid on an open wound” because it prevents the IDF from transferring those soldiers to new reserve units. The call-ups are also inherently temporary and therefore hinder the army’s ability to begin building a new long-term personnel strategy for the IDF, Yosef explained.

    FADC legal adviser Miri Frankel-Shor pointed out at Wednesday’s meeting that another obstacle to the Israel Defense Forces’ ability to conduct long-term planning is that the draft extension bill is only one of two bills originally submitted by the Defense Ministry in February. The second bill would have extended the minimum age for entering the reserves by five years and increased reserve service from about 25 days every three years to 42 days per year, an increase of about 500%.

    Unlike the bill on mandatory service extension, the reservists bill was not submitted to the Knesset for a vote, probably because it is extremely unpopular and significantly increases the duty burden for hundreds of thousands of reservists. However, Tayeb said during the meeting that without this second bill, the Israel Defense Forces would have to resort to ad hoc emergency call-ups of reservists for longer periods of time.



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    Idris Bevan
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