Posted on 07/25/23
| News Source: i24
The United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party demanded keeping seminary students out of the army or legislating the 'override' clause of the judicial reform
Societal tensions rose in Israel on Tuesday after an ultra-Orthodox political party demanded a new bill to legislate seminary studies as “a significant service” instead of army service, later stating it was the former or an “override clause.”
The ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism (UTJ) put new stress on the coalition, a day after a contentious vote on limiting the “reasonableness standard” of Israel's judiciary, resulting in a public back-and-forth with the ruling-party Likud.
“As agreed upon in the coalition agreement, an agreed solution will be found for all factions of the coalition on the [army] recruitment issue,” the ultra-Orthodox party explained in a statement.
“The bill was prepared by us at the time as part of the overall solution. The timing of the adoption on the Knesset table is coincidental and the whole issue will be formulated through agreements between the coalition parties. We apologize to anyone who tries to attach to the proposal what is not in it,” UTJ said, defending their proposal coming a day after the contentious vote.
Likud responded that "the proposed Torah study basic law is not on the agenda and it will not be advanced,” causing an outrage with UTJ, which said it was either this or the override clause part of the judicial reform.
The coalition agreement signed with UTJ, allowing the right-wing government to be formed, promised an enhanced basic law to legislate an official status for seminary Torah students in Israel, meant to have even been before the budget was passed.