Goldknopf says Netanyahu promised Haredi IDF exemptions as part of judicial overhaul

Former housing minister Yitzhak Goldknopf said Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Justice Minister Yariv Levin had explicitly promised ultra-Orthodox leaders that the coalition’s controversial judicial overhaul would include a quasi-constitutional Basic Law enshrining exemptions from military enlistment for Haredi yeshiva students.

The remarks came days after Goldknopf’s United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party quit Netanyahu’s coalition over the government’s failure to pass new legislation exempting Haredi men from military service — a move the High Court of Justice now says is legally required in the absence of a specific law.

In an interview with the Haredi news site Kikar Hashabbat, Goldknopf said he had been told by the prime minister and justice minister that the judicial overhaul would “solve the problem of the Haredi draft.”

He said they were promised both a Basic Law enshrining the rights of yeshiva students, and an override clause to shield Haredi military exemptions from court intervention. “What did we get? Nothing. We were wrong. We failed,” he said.

The party leader also warned that enforcing the 54,000 draft orders sent recently to yeshiva students would lead to mass unrest. “This is a law they won’t be able to carry out,” he said. “The country won’t rest, won’t be quiet… there will be no peace here, one way or another.”

“If they want to shake the country, let them. You cannot harm yeshiva students. You cannot harm Torah learners. You cannot harm the yeshivas. You cannot carry out arrests,” he continued.

In response, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid charged: “Goldknopf is saying out loud what we all knew — from day one, the deal was a blanket exemption from the draft for tens of thousands of healthy young men in exchange for dismantling the judicial system. Bibi sold out the serving, fighting, working public to draft dodgers and the corrupt.”

UTJ quit Netanyahu’s coalition last week after being presented with a copy of a proposed enlistment bill prepared by Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chair Yuli Edelstein, which the party argued violated the terms of a compromise that was reached by the two sides last month when an effort was being made to prevent the Haredi parties from toppling the government ahead of the war with Iran.

According to UTJ, Edelstein’s bill failed to deliver on several key demands, including offering full amnesty to yeshiva students who have already received and ignored enlistment orders. It also reportedly contained a clause requiring yeshiva students who receive exemptions to check in and out of their yeshivas using a fingerprint scanner.

Instead, the Haredi parties are looking to pass legislation that would enshrine sweeping exemptions from mandatory military service for ultra-Orthodox men. The issue gained greater urgency following a High Court ruling last year that the longstanding practice of granting exemptions had no basis in law.

UTJ’s withdrawal from the government was followed by fellow Haredi party Shas on Wednesday, though the latter decided to remain part of the ruling Knesset coalition.

Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged between 18 and 24 are currently believed to be eligible for IDF service, but have not enlisted. The IDF has said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits, due to the strain on standing and reservist forces in the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza and other military challenges. Currently, only around 1,800 Haredim enlist annually. About 2,700 enlisted over the past year, far short of the IDF’s goal of 4,800.