The Knesset plans to fast-track a bill this week to extend a provision to raise the cutoff age for IDF reservists by three months in an effort to prevent a manpower crisis.
According to the temporary provision, which is set to expire on June 30, regular soldiers must serve until age 41 instead of 40, and officers must serve until age 46 instead of 45. The goal is to avoid a scenario in which approximately 6,700 soldiers are released on June 30 in the middle of the war after having reached the cutoff age in the past six months, the Defense Ministry said.
The new bill would extend this provision to September 30.
The bill raised controversy last week after the Attorney General’s Office said the government was legally barred from pursuing legislation that would add to the burden of the reservists without acting to draft groups who do not serve in comparable numbers, such as haredim. Due to an acute need for manpower, however, the attorney general permitted the government a three-month extension.
Government voted to send bill to Knesset, Movement for Quality Government pushes back
In its weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, the government voted to send the proposed bill to the Knesset for deliberation. The Knesset usually must wait 45 days before beginning legislation, but the Knesset House Committee intends to approve a measure to cut the wait to 48 hours and ensure that it passes into law prior to the June 30 cutoff date.
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel (MQG), the main petitioner in an ongoing High Court of Justice case regarding haredi IDF service, criticized the government for approving an extension of the cutoff age.
It is a “cynical, outrageous decision that places an additional heavy burden on the shoulders of those who serve, while the haredim continue to enjoy a blanket exemption from conscription,” it said.
