Defense committee postpones discussions on bill to regulate ultra-Orthodox conscription

Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth (Likud) announced Monday that he was postponing a series of scheduled discussions of the government’s controversial bill to regulate military conscription for the ultra-Orthodox community.

The move comes despite the government being eager to push ahead with the bill that would codify draft exemptions for much of the Haredi community and pave the way for the ultra-Orthodox parties to return to the coalition.

Bismuth said the delay was meant to provide his panel’s legal adviser with the opportunity to formulate an updated version of the bill.

“In light of the fact that the legal adviser requires additional time to prepare a draft of the conscription bill for discussion based on the summary document that was submitted, the committee chair has decided to postpone the discussions that were planned for the coming week,” a spokesman for the committee said in a statement.

Bismuth was reportedly hoping to present the bill at a committee meeting later this week, as is being demanded by the Haredi parties, which are said to be eager to see the proposal passed into law. Instead, it will be brought before the committee next week.

Last Thursday, Bismuth submitted a document outlining the principles of the potential bill to committee legal adviser Miri Frenkel Shor. The ultra-Orthodox community largely opposes serving in the military and has historically been granted blanket exemptions.

The Likud lawmaker’s office said that “based on the document, a draft law will be formulated in the coming days that will guide the committee in the continuation of the legislative process to regulate the issue of conscription.”

According to Hebrew-language news reports, the document stipulates that within five years, 50 percent of the annual Haredi draft cohort will be conscripted, and the age of exemption will remain at 26. Government funding for yeshivas will only be cut if they fail to meet army enlistment quotas after a year, and sanctions on individuals who do not serve in the army will only go into effect after two years if the overall enlistment goal is not met.

Moreover, those sanctioned will not lose their driver’s licenses, although restrictions on issuing licenses to draft evaders will apply.

Bismuth’s proposal immediately drew harsh criticism from opposition politicians who say that its real purpose is to pave the way for the ultra-Orthodox Shas party to return to the coalition after it resigned earlier this year in protest of a previous Haredi draft bill. Former Shas MK Ariel Attias represented the Haredi parties in negotiations over Bismuth’s new proposal for the controversial bill.

Addressing the Knesset during the opening of parliament’s winter session on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the government will pass a bill to draft 10,000 Haredim into the military within two years.

Bismuth met with Netanyahu on Monday evening in what the lawmaker’s office said was a previously scheduled meeting with the prime minister.

Bismuth was appointed chairman of the committee in August after both of the coalition’s ultra-Orthodox parties left the government to protest its failure to advance the long-stalled legislation — which has been derided as an “evasion bill” by critics.

After taking over the committee, Bismuth largely threw out the work of former chairman Yuli Edelstein and started over. He has said that he believes Israelis must “find the balance” between Torah study and military service and that Israel needs both soldiers and Torah students.

For the past year, the Haredi leadership has pushed to pass a law keeping its constituency out of the IDF, after the High Court ruled that the decades-long blanket exemptions from army duty traditionally afforded to the Haredi community were illegal.

Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged between 18 and 24 are currently believed to be eligible for military service, but have not enlisted. The Israel Defense Forces has said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits due to the strain on standing and reserve forces caused by the war against Hamas in Gaza and other military challenges.

In July, the United Torah Judaism party left the coalition after being presented with a copy of a proposed enlistment bill prepared by Edelstein, which it argued had violated the terms of a supposed compromise reached in June. It was quickly followed by Shas, which, while quitting the government, has remained part of the coalition.

Speaking to reporters in the Knesset after its opening session on Monday following a three-month recess, Netanyahu denied plans to call early elections, saying they will take place as scheduled.

“The intention is to pass… a draft law [regarding the ultra-Orthodox], and then to hold elections at their scheduled time,” Netanyahu said.

Elections are scheduled for October 2026.