Haredi rabbis end key meeting on IDF conscription bill without issuing decision

The rabbinic leadership of the Hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction ended a Wednesday meeting on a bill to regulate ultra-Orthodox military conscription — and exempt most of the community’s young men from service — without issuing any statement on the legislation, in what was seen as a surprising move that reportedly left the faction’s own lawmakers in limbo.

In an unusual development, the faction’s lawmakers, who were waiting at the meeting’s location in Jerusalem, were not invited in to hear the rabbinic leadership’s decision after their deliberations, according to Hebrew media reports. Instead, the meeting dispersed without the MKs knowing the outcome.

Agudat Yisrael sources quoted by the Haaretz daily said that the faction, part of the Haredi United Torah Judaism party, is expected to issue a statement saying the rabbis had come to a decision but will not publish it — essentially allowing the legislation to advance while they maintain their opposition to sanctions on draft evaders.

For the past year and a half, the ultra-Orthodox leadership has pushed for a law that would largely keep its constituency out of the Israel Defense Forces, after the High Court of Justice ruled that decades-long blanket exemptions from army duty traditionally afforded to full-time Haredi yeshiva students were illegal.

The government is currently trying to pass new legislation to reinstate exemptions for most of the Haredi community, but is facing significant pushback.

The political opposition says the exemptions are both immoral and impractical given Israel’s security needs, and some members of the coalition have criticized the bill as well, saying mass exemptions cannot be allowed to continue given the IDF’s need for thousands of new combat soldiers. Meanwhile, Haredi leadership insists the bill’s concessions to their community are in fact not deep enough.

Despite reports that the rabbis could approve of the bill, sources told Haaretz that Agudat Yisrael is weighing its position against the backdrop of fears that the High Court will strike most of the legislation down, while allowing the clauses relating to sanctions on draft dodgers to pass. Those fears were reportedly stoked in November when the court gave the government 45 days to draw up sanctions on the ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers.

According to Channel 12, there are currently eight members of the coalition who oppose the bill, four from the Likud party and four from Agudat Israel. The latter four were said to be waiting to learn the rabbinic leadership’s ruling on the matter.

That currently adds up to 60 lawmakers opposing the bill, which would prevent it from passing in the 120-seat Knesset.

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 IDF 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.

On Sunday, the ultra-Orthodox Shas party said it will not vote for the 2026 state budget without the prior passage of the conscription bill and exemptions, a move that would bring down Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

The support of Shas’s 11 MKs will be critical for the budget to pass by its March 31 deadline and head off the dissolution of the Knesset, triggering elections earlier than their currently mandated October date.