ALJAZEERA: …The bill was voted through by 65 to 1 in a poll broadcast on Israel’s parliamentary television channel. The lone dissenting vote was cast by an MP from the far-right Jewish Home party who broke coalition discipline to oppose the law. Opposition parties within the 120-seat parliament had earlier announced they would not participate in the vote.
Military service at the age of 18 is required of all Jewish Israelis, with men serving three years and women serving two years. Mandatory service is required of the country’s Druze and Circassian minorities — but Arab citizens of Israel are exempt and largely refuse to join.
Ultra-Orthodox Israelis, who make up 10 percent of Israel’s population, enrolled in a yeshiva, or religious school, were until now exempt from the draft… (more)
