Government Secretary Yossi Fuchs has urged Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman MK Boaz Bismuth to fast-track emergency legislation that would suspend for three months the arrests and criminal proceedings against yeshivah bochurim and bnei Torah subject to military conscription. Fuchs warned that the ongoing arrests are deepening tensions with the chareidi community and could lead to an unprecedented national rift.

In a letter sent to Bismuth, Fuchs argued that arresting bnei yeshivah has failed to advance enlistment and is instead producing the opposite effect.

“These arrests of Torah learners do not advance enlistment among the chareidi public; rather, they distance enlistment, and there is a real concern of severing the bond with the chareidi public to the point, chalilah, of reaching a civil war, and this less than a week before the beginning of the Bein HaMetzarim period,” he wrote.

Fuchs said recent developments have shown growing unrest even among chareidi families whose sons already serve in chareidi military frameworks, including combat units and chareidi hesder yeshivos. According to him, many parents had previously accepted military service by some of their sons as long as other children were able to remain in yeshivah learning. Now, however, the prospect that full-time bnei Torah could be arrested at any moment has caused many of those same families to oppose additional enlistments.

He also pointed to a letter issued last week by 12 heads of chareidi hesder yeshivos, who warned that the wave of arrests has “caused a profound shock within the chareidi public.” They wrote that “instead of bringing people closer, it drives them away. Instead of building trust, it destroys it, and instead of allowing responsible dialogue, it creates a feeling of persecution, pain, and radicalization.”

According to Fuchs, the roshei yeshivah called for immediate passage of temporary legislation that would halt the arrests of bnei yeshivah and allow a long-term solution to be reached through agreement rather than coercion.

Fuchs also addressed the situation of married avreichim between the ages of 26 and 29. He explained that with the expiration of Chapter 3A of the law, the provision establishing age 26 as the exemption age also expired. As a result, even married avreichim whom the IDF has no interest in drafting are now vulnerable to arrest. He argued that such arrests serve no practical benefit to the state and only intensify public anger.

Recognizing that comprehensive legislation regulating the status of bnei yeshivah cannot realistically be completed before the upcoming elections, Fuchs proposed advancing a narrower measure dealing solely with criminal enforcement. Under his proposal, a temporary three-month order would remain in effect throughout the election period, freezing arrests and criminal proceedings against full-time yeshivah students whose Torah study is their full-time occupation, provided they can demonstrate that they are actively enrolled in a yeshivah and are subject to effective oversight. The proposal would not apply to chareidim who are not yeshivah students.

Fuchs stressed that the proposed temporary order would not exempt bnei yeshivah from military service, would not grant them official draft deferments from the IDF, and would not eliminate the financial sanctions imposed following the High Court’s ruling. Rather, he said, its sole purpose is to temporarily suspend criminal enforcement and arrests in order to prevent the crisis from escalating further while allowing time for a negotiated legislative solution.

{Matzav.com}