Uproar rocked the Knesset on Wednesday as the opposition Labor Party and its allies attempted once again to repeal the longstanding exemption of yeshiva students from compulsory military service.
Tempers exploded as haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, Knesset members screamed invectives at the opposition. Yair Levy of Shas and Moshe Gafni of Degel HaTorah were evicted from the chamber for abusive behavior.
But the outcome was preordained Likud kept faith with its haredi coalition partners, even though the present government will cease to exist after the June 23 elections.
Likud invoked party discipline to defeat eight opposition bills intended to put some 22,000 yeshiva students into uniform like all other ablebodied Israeli youths.
Many Labor members were absent, campaigning for their party’s second round of primary elections later this month.
Deputy Defense Minister Ovadia Eli defended draft deferments for yeshiva students, saying they are anchored in the “status quo” that has governed relations between the state and the religious community since Israel was founded.
Eli embarrassed some Laborites by reminding them that his was the same reply delivered in the Knesset two years ago by Yitzhak Rabin, who was defense minister at the time and is now the party leader.
Nevertheless, Michael Bar-Zohar of Labor objected. “That doesn’t represent us,” he declared.
Turning to the haredi benches, Bar-Zohar demanded, “What are we asking of you, for God’s sake? To serve your country! To be like us! For that we get called Nazis and anti-Semites?”
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