Any ultra-Orthodox enlistment bill currently wending its way through the legislative process will provide for individual sanctions on Haredi draft dodgers, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein declared Tuesday during a debate on the controversial legislation.

“There is a demand by the [Finance Ministry] Budget Department for personal sanctions. They even issued a letter on the subject. So I am announcing [that] there will be personal and institutional sanctions. We want to bring soldiers to the IDF, and therefore, the law that comes out of this committee will include a comprehensive and inclusive answer,” he said.

In a position paper sent to the committee last week, the head of the Budget Department insisted that conscripting large numbers of ultra-Orthodox Israelis for military service depends on the implementation of hard-hitting, long-term sanctions on draft dodgers.

In his letter, Yogev Gardos wrote that sanctions will only be effective if they have a significant impact on household income, continue “over a long period of time,” and cannot be bypassed through alternative funding channels.

According to Gardos, benefits that could be cut under a sanctions regime for draft dodgers include daycare subsidies, yeshiva stipends, discounts on National Insurance Institute payments, housing subsidies and property tax discounts.

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© The Times of Israel