JERUSALEM: Israel’s security cabinet has approved a plan to extend mandatory military service for men to 36 months from the current 32 months, western media reported on Friday.
The new rule will stay in force for the next eight years, after a meeting of the security cabinet that was held late on Thursday.
The decision is likely to be submitted for voting in a meeting of the full cabinet on Sunday.
Israel’s military commanders have said they need to enhance force as they are engaged in a war with Hamas in Gaza and a confrontation with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
In a separate plan, Israel is planning to send draft notices to thousands of ultra-Orthodox seminary students to join from military service.
Last month Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that the defense ministry must end the longtime exemption for ultra-Orthodox Jews from attending mandatory military service.
The divided coalition government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu relies on two ultra-Orthodox parties who oppose the termination of the exemption. However, the armed forces say they need more troops to sustain the war in Gaza in which the Israeli forces have killed more than 38,000 innocent Palestinians mostly women and children.
Last week thousands of men held a demonstration in the main square in Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim condemning the order from Israel’s highest court.
It is pertinent to mention that many Haredi men in Israel spend much of their early lives out of the workforce, instead studying at religious schools funded through government subsidies.
Even some lawmakers in Netanyahu’s coalition have joined the opposition in pushing for the Haredi community to enlist for mandatory military service.
