Tie voting rights to military service to solve Haredi draft evasion, says opinion piece

An opinion piece in the Jerusalem Post argues for a radical solution to Israel's Haredi draft evasion problem: linking voting rights to military service. The author, Fern Reiss, points to the exponential growth of the Haredi population, which currently constitutes 13% of Israel and is projected to reach 24% by 2050.

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

Reiss contends that the state heavily subsidizes the Haredi community, not only financially through welfare but also militarily by relying on non-Haredi soldiers to bear the brunt of security duties. She notes that over half of reserve soldiers have served hundreds of days, and Hesder soldiers, who combine religious study with army service, represent only 2% of the army but account for a disproportionate share of combat deaths.

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

The article criticizes the government's recent vote to turn draft evasion into a Basic Law, which would effectively codify exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox. As a countermeasure, Reiss proposes that only citizens who have completed military service should be allowed to vote. She draws parallels with international practices where citizenship and voting rights are sometimes conditional on service or other civic duties, citing examples from Latvia, Estonia, and India.

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Our soldiers are exhausted. Over half of our reserve soldiers have logged hundreds of days of military duty. We can’t continue to ask them to shoulder the burden alone.