Minister reveals: Number of haredim in civil service has increased

Settlement Minister Orit Strock spoke out about the Draft Law and the need to include haredim in national and military service.

In an interview with Channel 12 News, Strock said, "Serving in the military is not in contradiction to the Torah - it is one of the most important mitzvot (commandments) and an enormous merit."

"Our Torah is a Torah of life, the Torah of a nation which has returned to living fully in its Land, and our war is a 'milchemet mitzva' (a war which the Torah commands us to fight -ed.) But there is a sector which thinks differently, and we need to understand that its enlistment will not happen all at once."

"First and foremost, we need to create and expand frameworks which will allow the haredi public to contribute to the State and its security, without a 'melting pot' and without threats of secularization - frameworks where those who enter as haredim know that they will also leave as haredim, and will also receive an excellent platform for integration into the job market," she explained.

"This is what we are offering in the National-Civil Service, and this is a model for a realistic, true, non-confrontational yet effective solution. In my one year as the minister charged with the National-Civil Service, we increased the number of haredim serving in it from 1,000 to 1,370.

"With the State investing effort, we will succeed a lot more even now, as the numbers for the next draft continue to increase. Not by revolution, but certainly by evolution," she concluded.