Ultra-Orthodox lawmakers from Degel HaTorah are pressing senior rabbinic leaders to drop their opposition to the coalition’s proposed military draft exemption bill for yeshiva students, as the Knesset prepares to open its summer session next week.
The talks are being led mainly by lawmakers Yaakov Asher and Uri Maklev, according to political sources, and are focused on the circle around Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch, one of the two senior leaders of Israel’s Lithuanian Haredi community. Hirsch had ordered the bill’s advancement frozen, arguing that the proposed wording would harm yeshiva students.
Ultra-Orthodox crowd attacks soldiers during a protest at the entrance to Jerusalem over the arrest of IDF draft dodgers
(Video: Liran Tamari)
The issue is one of the most explosive in Israeli politics. Most Jewish Israeli men and women are required to serve in the military, but ultra-Orthodox men studying in yeshivas have long received broad exemptions. The arrangement has fueled deep resentment among many secular and national-religious Israelis, especially during the war, when the military says it needs more manpower.
According to sources in the ultra-Orthodox parties, the lawmakers badly want the bill passed. “They understand this is their last chance in this term before the election,” one source said.
Figures in United Torah Judaism said Degel HaTorah understands that without a draft law, voter turnout could suffer. “Many people will have no motivation to vote for the party after such a failure on the draft issue,” one party figure said.
The pressure comes as sanctions against ultra-Orthodox men who do not enlist are increasing. After the High Court of Justice ruled that the government must revoke a series of benefits from draft evaders, authorities are moving to cut access to housing purchase discounts, municipal tax breaks, day care subsidies, public transportation benefits and other advantages.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara also said tax benefits on donations to yeshivas should be revoked, a dramatic step that could harm the donation network on which yeshivas rely, especially after state funding was cut because students were not enlisting.
Publicly, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Likud lawmakers are signaling that if the rabbis support the bill, it will move forward. Some political figures say Netanyahu wants to resolve the draft issue quickly so the ultra-Orthodox parties will not consider cooperating with his opponents.
But Likud sources say Netanyahu does not want to advance the bill just before elections because he knows there is opposition within his own party. Figures close to the prime minister have signaled to the ultra-Orthodox parties that the timing is problematic, since some lawmakers may not return to the next Knesset and therefore have little to lose by opposing the bill.
Netanyahu also reportedly believes there would not be enough time to show the public results from the legislation, making it difficult for him to claim during an election campaign that he had increased ultra-Orthodox enlistment.
Despite the ultra-Orthodox push, political officials believe the bill is unlikely to pass.
Meanwhile, a separate bill to extend mandatory military service to three years is also awaiting action. Regular service currently stands at 32 months and is scheduled to shorten in January to 30 months, which would further strain an already depleted military workforce.
In March, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir warned the Security Cabinet that without the extension, “the army will collapse into itself and will not be able to meet its missions,” according to officials.
Despite army pressure, the coalition does not intend to advance the service-extension bill separately. It plans to move it only alongside progress on the ultra-Orthodox draft bill.
Miri Frenkel, legal adviser to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, has argued that extending regular service before advancing a draft law would deepen the burden on those already serving. She said service should not be lengthened for current soldiers before ultra-Orthodox men are also drafted effectively.
First published: 06:52, 05.05.26