The national student union announced on Tuesday that it would join the fight to conscript Haredim into the army or national service, slamming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu´s disbanding of the Plesner committee, which was appointed to design a method to achieve that goal.

Itzik Shmuli, head of the National Union of Israeli Students and a leader of last summer´s social justice protests, said: "The prime minister has decided to be consistent in his failure to meet his commitments to the public, first in the field of social justice and now on equality of the [draft] burden. In disbanding the Plesner committee, Netanyahu chose to give up on [the needs of] soldiers, young people, university students, immigrants, residents of outlying areas of the country, taxpayers and army reservists."

Shmuli made it clear, however, that his involvement on the draft issue is in his capacity as a university student and not as a leader of the social justice protests.

He said he would be representing the interests of the "silent majority" of people who do their compulsory military service, go to college and do their reserve duty, and whose interests are not taken into account by the country´s decision makers. (© Copyright 2012 Ha´aretz 07/04/12)