Far-right MKs Har-Melech, Sukkot set to take over Knesset panels vacated by Shas

Health and education committees were left inactive since Shas quit its coalition posts in October, in protest of failure to pass Haredi draft exemption law

By Sam Sokol 19 December 2025, 12:40 am

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Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

Two far-right lawmakers are set to take over chairmanships of two parliamentary committees left vacant for the past two months since the ultra-Orthodox Shas party withdrew from all coalition roles it held in the Knesset.

Shas quit the panels to protest the coalition’s failure to pass a law exempting most yeshiva students from army service.

In a statement on Wednesday evening, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that MK Zvi Sukkot of his Religious Zionism party would be appointed chair of the Knesset Education Committee in place of Shas’s Yosef Taib.

Sukkot, who was recently questioned by police over his participation — along with other coalition MKs — in a mob that rioted and broke into the IDF’s Sde Teiman military base, said he was “excited to receive the great honor” and that he will “work with all my strength for the benefit of education in Israel.”

According to Channel 12, Smotrich’s decision to tap Sukkot for the role instead of party MK Moshe Solomon, who already serves on the committee, may stem from Solomon’s outspoken criticism of the coalition’s controversial Haredi draft bill.

In a separate statement on Thursday afternoon, Otzma Yehudit chairman and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announced that party MK Limor Son Har-Melech will soon become chair of the Knesset Health Committee in place of Shas’s Yoni Meshriki.

In a statement, Son Har-Melech said that Israel’s healthcare system “is one of the best in the world, but it faces significant challenges.” She said she hopes to shorten wait times for treatment and work on “strengthening medicine in the periphery” and improving mental health care.

“I see this role as a sacred mission. I intend to lead the committee with a matter-of-fact and professional approach, with only one goal in mind: to ensure that every citizen in Israel, regardless of residence or background, will receive high-quality, swift medical care that is most tailored to their needs,” she added.

MK Limor Son Har-Melech speaks during a protest against the administrative detention of Jewish Israeli extremists, outside the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, May 22, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Both appointments still require approval from the Knesset House Committee.

Shas left the government in July to protest the failure to pass a conscription bill exempting yeshiva students from military conscription, but remained a part of the coalition. The party gave up the chairmanships of the committees in an act of further protest in late October.

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.

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 decades-long blanket exemptions from army duty traditionally afforded to full-time Haredi yeshiva students were illegal.

A government-backed bill making its way through the Knesset, which sets yearly quotas, would, if passed, continue to grant military service exemptions to full-time yeshiva students while ostensibly increasing conscription among graduates of Haredi educational institutions.

Shas also relinquished the chair of the Special Committee for Bridging Social Gaps in the Periphery, but no replacement for former chairman Michael Malkieli has yet been named.

MK Zvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism) pictured after breaking into the IDF’s Sde Teiman detention center, July 29, 2024. (X screenshot, used in accordance with clause 27a of the copyright law)

Since Shas left its positions on the health and education committees, both have been neglected, prompting opposition lawmakers to unsuccessfully attempt to unilaterally establish alternative panels.

Last month, the Knesset voted to appoint two Likud ministers, Yariv Levin and Haim Katz, to take over five ministries that had been leaderless since Shas and fellow ultra-Orthodox party United Torah Judaism left the government over the summer.

Critics argued that the lack of full-time ministers created a management vacuum that significantly harmed the government’s ability to function for months on end.

In addition to Sukkot and Son Har-Melech, far-right Noam MK Avi Maoz is set to replace Likud’s Tally Gotliv on the recently established contentious Committee for Deliberating the Communications Bill, financial newspaper The Marker reported. The legislation to establish the committee was part of the government’s assault on legacy media, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government accuses of bias.