Voting rights and PACs: Solutions for the haredi draft evasion problem - opinion

There is one easy way to solve the haredi problem – tie voting citizenship to service.

Today, there are over 1.3 million haredi Israelis, 13% of the country’s population, and growing exponentially. The Israel Democracy Institute projects that they will be 16% by 2030; 24% by 2050.

Everyone knows we subsidize the haredi community’s expenditures – their rent, groceries, childcare, and yeshiva studies.

The Kohelet Policy Forum recently calculated that haredi households receive an average of NIS 5,983 per month from the state – while non-haredi households pay out NIS 8,842 per month, a gap of nearly NIS 15,000.

But we subsidize more than their expenditures. We also subsidize their security. In a very real way, we subsidize the haredim with our lives.

We have created a subculture that we support financially and militarily – and whose thanks has been to disdain and disrespect us for that support.

Then, this week the government voted to turn draft evasion into a Basic Law, the closest thing Israel has to a Constitution. It is an attempt to forever codify the ultra-Orthodox’s exemptions and hold over the country.

Our hesder soldiers, who combine Torah study with army service, are just 2% of the army. Yet over 85% of them serve in combat units and incur a disproportionate share (estimated at over 12%) of military deaths.

Why are the haredim not doing their share of this burden?

We also need to crack down on non-haredi draft dodgers, though more than 80% of draft dodgers are haredi.

There is a solution: only those who serve should be permitted to vote.

There is international precedent for multiple kinds of citizenship, draft repercussions, and removing people’s ability to vote.

Worldwide, not all countries’ residents are automatically voting citizens. Some countries have explicit non-citizen categories, and those non-citizens or semi-citizens can’t vote, including in Latvia, Estonia, Japan, Hong Kong (the Sindhis), Malaysia (the non-Bumiputera), Mainland Chinese in Hong Kong or Macau, and nearly 120 million citizens of India.

Moreover, in many of the 26 countries where the draft is mandatory, if you don’t serve, you’re thrown in jail. And in most countries, even democracies, there is strong precedent for removing citizens’ right to vote: prisoners, those who break the law, can’t vote. In the US, convicted felons are barred from voting for their entire lives.

We should pass a law saying that since all draft dodgers are in abrogation of the law, we will remove their right to vote.

There are special circumstances we’ll need to consider, among these Israeli Arabs and older olim. And we need to consider what to do about mixed-gender army units to accommodate haredim without minimizing women’s army roles.

I’m not suggesting that we toss anyone out of the country. Post-Holocaust, there needs to be a homeland for Jews, regardless of their behavior. But we need to ensure it is a homeland for all the Jews – not just the haredim.

We don’t need to sanction individuals. We just need the community as a whole to supply more soldiers. We don’t care how they do it.

This idea has been proposed before. Last year, Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman championed a bill to tie voting to enlistment. It was defeated 69 to 27 in the Knesset.

But we are about to have a new election. Rather than encouraging any one party to take this on, I suggest that we form a PAC (Political Action Committee). In the US, PACs pool donations and efforts to support political candidates and legislation. Here, what is needed is support for those parties that pledge not to, under any circumstances, form a coalition with the haredi parties, and promise to immediately enact legislation to cancel the non-serving vote.

Then we citizens, who send our youth to the army, can vote our conscience – as long as our parties are among those who have pledged not to align with the ultra-Orthodox to continue this travesty.

After that, the haredi swing vote, and many of the budgetary ramifications, cease to exist. The haredim will only reemerge as a political force when the majority of haredim are serving. We will have solved the problem.

Imagine what else we can do with that funding! We can solve the country’s education problem and the healthcare crisis. We can provide reserve and regular soldiers with decent salaries.

We can improve lifestyles for people in need – not just haredi people in need.

Non-serving haredim: your refusal to serve is an affront to the country that puts their lives on the line to defend you. We used to view you with respect. Now, all we see is an entitled group who force our children into danger, because it is only our children protecting the country that you share.

The rest of us have lost friends. We have lost hostages. Some have lost children.