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Tuesday, October 28, 2025
Knesset panel delays presentation of controversial Haredi draft exemptions bill to Monday
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam 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"
Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth’s revised bill to regulate ultra-Orthodox conscription will not be presented to lawmakers on Thursday as scheduled, and will instead be discussed on Monday.
The presentation of Bismuth’s draft of the bill has already been postponed once. Last week, Shas gave up its chairmanships of parliamentary committees to protest the lack of a law regulating the conscription of — and draft exemptions for — Haredi yeshiva students.
Bismuth (Likud) has said his goal is to have the controversial bill passed into law in December. The new bill is set to be based on a document of principles he recently submitted to the committee’s legal adviser.
According to Hebrew news reports, the document stipulates that within five years, 50% of the annual eligible Haredi draft cohort will be conscripted, and the age of exemption from conscription will remain at 26. Government funding for yeshivas will only be cut if they fail to meet army enlistment quotas after a year. Sanctions on individuals who do not serve in the army will only go into effect after two years if the overall enlistment goal is not met.
Sanctioned individuals will not lose their driver’s licenses, although restrictions on issuing new licenses to draft evaders will apply.
The Times of Israel Community.