Haredi parties likely to vote for 2026 state budget despite lack of exemption law

Two of the Knesset’s three ultra-Orthodox factions are likely to vote in favor of the 2026 state budget in its final two readings, despite the coalition’s failure to first pass legislation exempting yeshiva students from military service, according to multiple Hebrew media reports.

Speaking with Channel 14 last week, Netanyahu stated that the budget would pass before the conscription bill. He told the pro-government network that “we are working on that in a serious manner.”

“I think that in practical terms, it’s the budget, then the conscription law,” he said.

The Haredi parties have previously stated that they would not support the budget — which must be approved before the end of March to prevent the government from collapsing — until their long-demanded bill is passed. The Knesset is due to begin its annual Passover recess on April 1.

For the past year and a half, the Haredi leadership has pushed for a law keeping its constituency out of the Israel Defense Forces, after the High Court ruled that decades-long blanket exemptions from army duty traditionally afforded to full-time Haredi yeshiva students 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. During the course of the war in Gaza, the IDF repeatedly told lawmakers that it lacked 12,000 troops due to the strain of the conflict and other military challenges. Despite that conflict being halted, the military maintains that it is still short of regular service troops.

However, the passage of such legislation, which has sparked opposition within Netanyahu’s own coalition, is highly unlikely during the current armed conflict with Iran.

The bill has come under fire from the IDF brass, the attorney general, and a wide array of other critics, who have objected to it on the grounds that it is full of loopholes, preserves inequality in the mandatory draft, and will not increase Haredi enlistment amid what the military says is a manpower shortage.

While the Hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction voted against the budget in its first reading in January, Shas and Degel Hatorah ultimately supported it following protracted negotiations over the contents of the exemption bill.

Despite this, Degel Hatorah spiritual leader Rabbi Dov Lando said at the time that the faction would “insist that the conscription law be completed before bringing the budget law to second and third readings.”

Degel HaTorah and Agudat Yisrael are the two factions comprising the larger Ashkenazi United Torah Judaism party.

The Haredi parties have a history of threatening to tank the budget over conscription before ultimately voting in favor. Following the passage of the first reading of the 2026 state budget, both Shas and Degel HaTorah joined the coalition in voting to split the Arrangements Law, a key budget-related bill, into two parts in February — an important legislative step.

The ultra-Orthodox Behadrei Haredim news site reported over the weekend that representatives of both Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah had recently met with Netanyahu as part of his push to muster support for the budget, with Degel HaTorah chairman Moshe Gafni telling the premier that the party’s rabbinic leadership had not yet determined a course of action. Shas, the site added, already supports the budget.

Meanwhile, both Channel 12 and the Haaretz daily reported that the Haredim would support the budget, with Haaretz quoting anonymous party sources stating that while Agudat Yisrael is opposed, Degel HaTorah had received rabbinic instructions to vote in favor. Haaretz also reported that Shas will likely vote in favor.

In a tweet on Sunday, a reporter for the ultra-Orthodox news site Emess wrote that Degel HaTorah MK Yitzhak Pindrus indicated that his faction would vote in favor, asking: “Is it possible to wage a war without a budget?” However, speaking with The Times of Israel, a spokesman for Lando said the issue is under discussion but “has not yet been decided.”

An Agudat Yisrael source confirmed that the faction would vote against the budget again, stating, “I don’t think we’ll support it.”

In order for Agudat Yisrael to vote for the budget, it would require a bill that fully exempts yeshiva students from IDF service, “and there is no law on the table,” he said, appearing to reiterate his faction’s stance that any legislation mandating sanctions on yeshiva students is unacceptable.

The latest version of the bill, drafted by Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth of Likud, would codify blanket exemptions from military service for full-time yeshiva students, while setting modest conscription targets for Haredi men as a whole.

Spokesmen for the Haredi factions did not reply to inquiries from The Times of Israel.

The 2026 state budget includes nearly NIS 1 billion ($322 million) in additional funding for ultra-Orthodox schools.