The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee continued deliberations Tuesday on the proposed draft law, focusing on enforcement clauses that would allow the imposition of financial sanctions on yeshivos and their officials.
The discussion centered on Sections 26K1 through 26K16 of the bill, which outline mechanisms for financial penalties as part of the law’s implementation. Under the proposal, the director-general of the Israeli Ministry of Defense would be authorized to levy monetary fines if it is determined that at least five percent of a given yeshiva’s students do not meet the “declared condition” — namely, that they are engaged in regular Torah study for a minimum of 45 hours per week, or 40 hours per week in the case of a kollel.
The declaration would be submitted by a senior official of the yeshiva who also serves as an authorized signatory for the nonprofit organization or public-benefit corporation that operates the institution. If a violation is found, the defense ministry’s director-general could impose a fine of up to 20,000 shekels, after granting the official an opportunity to present arguments.
In addition, the bill provides for a fine of 1,500 shekels for each student regarding whom a declaration was submitted that does not comply with the law’s requirements. The proposal further states that an official who is sanctioned more than once, or who is fined in connection with five or more students, would lose the right to submit additional affidavits seeking deferments from military service.
The legislation would also require the director-general of the Defense Ministry to submit a report every six months to the committee detailing the number of sanctions imposed, their total monetary value, and the grounds on which they were issued.
During the session, members of bereaved families addressed the committee with emotional testimony. Mia Moreno, the widow of Lt. Col. Emanuel Moreno, said: “Both of my sons serve in the army. No leniencies apply to me — if they don’t enlist, they go to prison, and they are IDF orphans. How can it be that the State of Israel discriminates between citizens? One of my sons studied for two years in yeshiva, a talmid chacham, and chose to enlist in a regular army unit. There is great value to Torah, but Torah without a connection to the state — I question what its value is.”
Michal Castel-Keidar, the widow of Lt. Col. Dolev Keidar, also spoke at the hearing. “We are not a religious family, but Dolev commanded a company of yeshiva students and did everything he could to ensure they received what they needed,” she said. “How is it not self-evident that everyone who lives in this country must also help defend it?”
{Matzav.com}
Why don’t the Chareidim demand the removal of these self-appointed judges who elected themselves for life? Who are these evil self-appointed witches to give commands?
“There is great value to Torah, but Torah without a connection to the state — I question what its value is.”
That’s heresy. Torah is invaluable, as in of unlimited value. Period. It is also the supreme value over everything else including “connection to the state”..
“How is it not self-evident that everyone who lives in this country must also help defend it?”
Two reasons:
1. The army in which they would have to serve for that alleged defense has the express purpose of forcibly converting them from Judaism to Nationalism.
2. They, like their grandparents and earlier over a century ago, asked to be left alone and not part of that nationalist experiment there, preferring to live in peace as they did before the heretics came in and lit the region aflame.