Edelstein expected to present revised Haredi enlistment bill in coming days

Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein is expected to present lawmakers with a revised version of the government’s ultra-Orthodox enlistment bill in the coming days, after the matter was briefly shelved due to the war with Iran.

According to national broadcaster Kan, the legislation will call for conscripting more than 4,800 Haredim in the first year and that while the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties will oppose the new legislation, they are not willing “to blow everything up” over the issue.

Contacted by The Times of Israel, lawmakers from the Haredi parties said that they had not seen a final draft of the revised bill, although one UTJ official did say that his party was concerned about what would be presented.

Speaking with Radio Kol Barama on Tuesday evening, UTJ MK Moshe Roth warned that the ultra-Orthodox could increase pressure on the government to pass a law granting draft exemptions for yeshiva students unless they see progress on the issue over the coming days.

The Haredi parties are already boycotting private member bills by coalition MKs over delays in advancing the legislation and UTJ’s MKs could soon turn to their rabbinic leadership to discuss “intensifying measures,” said Roth, a member of the party’s Agudat Yisrael faction, which represents the Hasidic community.

MK Moshe Gafni, a member of the party’s other faction, Degel Hatorah, announced on Thursday that he had met with Rabbi Meir Zvi Bergman, a member of the faction’s ruling Council of Torah Sages, “for consultation and guidance on the issues on the agenda.”

Edelstein, chair of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, had long pledged to only allow legislation on the matter to pass through his committee if it included sanctions against ultra-Orthodox men who flout enlistment orders.

An unreleased version of the bill that was being worked on by Edelstein’s committee prior to the Iran war was said to contain a raft of harsh sanctions, including the loss of discounts on property taxes and public transportation, the removal of tax benefits for working women married to draft dodgers, exclusion from the housing lottery, and the cancellation of daycare and academic subsidies.

The bill would have also prevented draft dodgers up to the age of 29 from getting driver’s licenses or traveling abroad and would have opened them up to the risk of arrest.

Mounting Anger

The bill comes amid mounting anger among the general public over the toll placed an those who serve during the ongoing war.

During a visit to IDF troops in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Defense Minister Israel Katz was confronted by a senior commander over the issue of the ultra-Orthodox community’s continued exemptions from mandatory military service, according to a video aired by Channel 12 news.

In the clip, the unnamed officer expressed frustration over the personal toll of extended service, while other Israelis are not required to serve at all.

“We are on our 500th day [of service]. We have left our families behind for 500 days,” the commander told Katz in the footage.

“My father passed away last year, my son is having his bar mitzvah in three weeks — I want to take my 80-year-old mother to the hospital and I can’t,” he continued.

“Your job is to make sure…that everyone gets under the stretcher,” the officer said , referring to shared burden and sacrifice.

When questioned by Katz, the commander made his criticism explicit: “I am speaking about the ultra-Orthodox.”

Backing down

However, last month Edelstein, a veteran Likud lawmaker, appeared to back down on some of his demands as part of a last-ditch effort to prevent the Haredim from voting for a bill to dissolve the Knesset.

Both Shas and UTJ, which seek to preserve long-standing exemptions from mandatory service enjoyed by the Haredi community, had threatened to back the dissolution bill over the enlistment issue, which would have left Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu without a majority needed to stay in power. Elections are currently scheduled for October 2026.

Edelstein’s compromise with the Haredim calls for a softened version of the bill regulating the enlistment of yeshiva students.

After reaching an agreement, the ultra-Orthodox parties announced that “understandings have been reached regarding the principles for the law preserving the status of yeshiva students,” adding that “another few days” were needed to “complete the final version” of the legislation.

The following day, however, Israel launched a series of airstrikes against Iran’s nuclear program, setting off a 12-day war and delaying any discussion of the legislation in the Knesset. Both Edelstein and Shas chairman Aryeh Deri were informed about the strikes in advance, knowledge which appears to have contributed to their willingness to compromise.

Rolling back sanctions

According to a report published last month on ultra-Orthodox Behadrei Haredim news site, the compromise outline stipulated that the enlistment law will be a temporary measure that will last for only six years, or four if it fails to meet its mobilization goals.

While sanctions connected to subsidies for academic study, international travel and drivers’ licenses would be imposed immediately, others relating to daycare and public transportation subsidies would be delayed.

Should the government be unable to reach its enlistment targets in two years, additional sanctions would take effect, including excluding draft dodgers from the housing lottery.

Institutional sanctions on yeshivas that fail to provide enough soldiers would also be imposed, including up to 50 percent of a yeshiva’s budget if it provides less than 95% of its annual target and all of its budget if it does not reach 75%.

Under the reported compromise, the status of all yeshiva students would be reset and need to be regulated from scratch.

In the wake of the compromise, UTJ chairman and Agudat Yisrael faction chief Yitzhak Goldknopf resigned from the cabinet in protest, although his party remains in the coalition.

On the opposing side of the issue, Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee member MK Moshe Tur-Paz (Yesh Atid), told The Times of Israel, “Yuli needs to submit a real, brave law with teeth that will lead to the immediate conscription of thousands of Haredim.”

“If he does so, the law may pass and it may not, but it will certainly constitute a real platform for Haredim conscription. Any other way is spitting in the faces of the reservists.”

A spokesman for Edelstein did not respond to a request for further information about the timing and content of the bill.

Stav Levaton contributed to this report