Responding to the Israel Defense Forces’ increased enforcement efforts against draft evaders, the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party was set to submit a bill this week requiring the IDF to accommodate detainees’ religious lifestyle while allowing military courts to reduce prisoners’ sentences should prison authorities fail to provide such accommodations.

The bill comes even though the IDF already provides for the religious needs of soldiers and appears to be an attempt to shorten the incarceration of yeshiva students detained for refusing mandatory military conscription.

Someone arrested and detained by the military “is entitled to appropriate conditions for maintaining their religious lifestyle, and shall not be prevented from observing the commandments of their religion or belief,” a copy of the bill provided to The Times of Israel stated, tasking the defense minister and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee with enacting regulations for the proposed legislation’s implementation.

The bill would require military prison authorities to provide kosher food, dedicated time for public or individual prayer as well as access to a place for services, and access to holy items such as prayer books and tefillin (phylacteries). It would also prevent the military from requiring detainees to violate Shabbat or holidays and give them the right to speak with a religious leader within 24 hours of lodging a request.

It also called for the establishment of a “dedicated wing for prisoners and detainees who declare that they maintain a religious or faith-based lifestyle, where an appropriate religious or faith-based lifestyle will be enabled.”

Should any of these conditions be violated, a military court would be permitted to “order any remedy it deems fit to ensure the fulfillment of the right, including reducing the period of detention or imprisonment,” the bill........

© The Times of Israel