JERUSALEM — Disgusted with the passage of the Tal Law exempting yeshiva students from military duty, dozens of reservists indicated Sunday that they will refuse to serve their next tour of duty if the law is not changed.
Approved by the Knesset last Tuesday, the Tal Law codified a de facto law enabling tens of thousands of yeshiva students to defer permanently either service in the military or in the Civil Guard. It came amid increasing pressure on reservists whose maximum period of service was increased from 30 to 38 days last month.
“After they passed the law last Tuesday, I felt as if the government, the MKs, and those that I voted for spat in my face,” said Noam Peleg, 24, the initiator of the fledgling anti-Tal Law campaign.
Peleg, a combat medic in the Armored Corps, sparked the campaign last Wednesday when he sent a letter, along with his reserve ID card, to the prime minister saying that the country has lost its moral compass and no longer has a right to summon him for reserve duty.
“Besides being dangerous that a few carry the load for so many, it is absurd and unjust that we should be forced to carry the yeshiva students on our backs. In Brooklyn they work and study, why can’t they do that here?” asked the law student.
After his letter was published on the Walla! Internet site last Wednesday afternoon, the response was explosive. The site received an unprecedented 4,000 responses, both positive and negative, a Walla! spokesperson said.
“Not only did the site fill up, but I began to get dozens of phone calls at home with people telling me they also returned [their reserve IDs] asking when we are going to have a protest,” Peleg noted.
He said the nascent group, which does not yet have a name, might protest against the Tal Law next week in front of the prime minister’s residence.
There was initial speculation that this movement and the movement for reservists who refuse to serve in the territories are linked, but a spokesperson for the refusers denied any connection. “While we commend what they are doing, they are fighting for equality in the state, we are just struggling for Israel to leave the territories,” said Ishai Sagi, a member of the resisters group.
A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces said, “The Tal Law was codified in the Knesset and it represents a political decision. The reservists have until now found the justice in serving the IDF during the continued violence and the IDF believes that they will continue to serve the state.”