Knesset Legal Adviser Adv. Sagit Afik told a committee hearing that the bill to freeze arrest proceedings for Haredi draft evaders was replaced with an entirely different framework, harming the legislative process. She said the bill's purpose clause was changed and references to service and reducing inequality were removed.
Knesset Legal Adviser Adv. Sagit Afik told a committee hearing on Sunday morning that the coalition's bill to freeze arrest proceedings for Haredi draft evaders — the so-called "deserters bill" — was replaced with a fundamentally different arrangement, creating an "improper" legislative process. Afik said the bill's purpose clause was altered and references to military service and reducing inequality were omitted.
The remarks add to mounting institutional opposition already reported earlier today. At 08:34 Jerusalem, the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee's legal advisor formally opposed the bill, describing it as a new unequal draft law that eliminates economic sanctions and lacks effective oversight (as The Zioneer reported in a series of updates beginning at 08:34). Prior to today, on June 29, the Attorney General and the Military Advocate General jointly opposed the bill, arguing it creates a bypass track around the conscription law. On July 1, the committee's legal advisor warned that the bill's text was replaced after 86 sessions of deliberation, undermining the legislative process.
As The Zioneer reported on June 29, the Attorney General and Military Advocate General said the bill legitimizes draft evasion. The coalition has been seeking to resolve the conscription crisis before the Knesset disperses, but the legal advisers' objections have added procedural hurdles.
The full legal opinion from the Knesset legal adviser has not yet been published.
8 developments
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