Israel passes quasi-constitutional law declaring Torah study a foundational value

The Knesset voted 63-52 on Monday to pass a deeply divisive Basic Law declaring Torah study a “foundational value” of the Jewish people and the State of Israel, following 10 hours of speeches and opposition filibustering, and despite resistance from the opposition, legal officials, reservists and some coalition lawmakers.

The legislation makes Torah study the only value explicitly enshrined in one of Israel’s Basic Laws, giving it quasi-constitutional recognition. Haredi parties pushed to pass the law as part of their broader effort to preserve blanket military service exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men, while opponents argue it effectively elevates Torah study above all other national values.

The law was framed to make it harder for the High Court of Justice to continue to rule that Haredi non-service is illegal and discriminatory, because it enshrines Torah study as an essential component of the state.

The court ruled unanimously in 2024 that the government must draft ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students into the military since there was no legal framework to continue the decades-long practice of granting them blanket exemptions from army service.

Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged 18 to 24 are currently believed to be eligible for military service, but have not enlisted. The IDF has said repeatedly in recent months that it urgently needs 12,000 new recruits amid ongoing multi-front conflict since Hamas’s massacre in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

While the final version of the legislation no longer explicitly equates Torah study with military service following pressure from some within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s own Likud, opponents argue that even in its pared-down form, it intolerably seeks to legislatively anchor the ongoing broad exemption from IDF service of Haredi young men, elevating Torah study above other national values while the IDF is crying out for manpower and tens of thousands of reservists continue to serve in the ongoing war.

“Today, a historic step has been taken in the State of Israel,” said United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni, who co-sponsored the law. “This Basic Law will serve as the state’s moral compass and express the recognition that Torah study is not merely the heritage of the past, but the foundation upon which rests the present and future of the Jewish people on their land.”

Shas party chairman Arye Deri celebrated, “This is a victory for the world of Torah and a clear answer to the ousted attorney general and everyone who sought to persecute and humiliate yeshiva students. You will not succeed in breaking the Jewish spirit. The holy Torah will prevail!”

“I never dreamed that we would have to legislate a Basic Law to establish that Torah study is a foundational value in the State of Israel,” said United Torah Judaism chair Yitzhak Goldknopf before the plenum, during the debate before the vote.

Likud MKs Yuli Edelstein and Dan Illouz voted against the legislation. Both have long opposed the bill and recently announced they are leaving Likud over the issue.

“How characteristic of this coalition that it opens the last week [of Knesset legislation before October’s elections] with a Basic Law that is an utter desecration of God’s name,” fumed Opposition leader Yair Lapid from the Knesset podium before the vote. “This is how you are ending your term: by spitting in the face of IDF soldiers.”

Added opposition MK Chili Tropper: “This house is behaving this week as though the war is over: It’s ok to look after draft dodgers. It’s ok to back the evasion of IDF service…. But the war is still here. Our soldiers are in Lebanon right now … and they see clearly that in this house, this week, draft dodgers are preferred to warriors.”

Netanyahu stays away from vote; Eisenkot calls him a coward

Netanyahu was absent from the vote, prompting opposition Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot to write, “Coward. Here’s another stain, one that won’t be erased.”

The legislation is the first of several contentious measures expected to become law this week as part of a larger political deal struck last month between Netanyahu and his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners to break a legislative deadlock and solidify their alliance before the election.

Under that agreement, the coalition is fast-tracking further legislation demanded by the Haredi parties, including bills temporarily freezing arrests and sanctions of draft dodgers, and restoring the Chief Rabbinate’s monopoly over kosher certification.

In return, the Haredi parties are backing legislation Netanyahu wants, including a bill that would give the government control over appointing a commission to investigate the failures surrounding the October 7, 2023, attack as well as legislation significantly weakening the powers of the attorney general, one of the country’s only institutional checks on executive power.

According to the Knesset’s weekly agenda, lawmakers are also expected to hold final votes in the coming days on Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi’s media overhaul bill, a measure to give the government control of the Kan public broadcaster’s budget, a bill establishing an official October 7 state memorial framework, and legislation expanding gender-segregated study tracks in higher education.

All of the legislation and more is expected to pass by the end of the week, when the Knesset dissolves ahead of the October 27 general election.

Opposition leaders roundly condemned the law’s passage, and in a rare joint statement ahead of the vote urged coalition lawmakers to vote against the legislation.

“We call on coalition members to act responsibly and not vote in favor of seriously harming the IDF during a war, in defiance of the IDF chief of staff’s dramatic warning,” the statement read, referring to a harsh letter from IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir to lawmakers opposing legislation advancing in the Knesset to shield draft dodgers at a time of war.

“Those who support the draft-evasion law will forever bear the shame of that vote in the eyes of the citizens of Israel who serve and work,” the opposition leaders added.

The statement was signed by Lapid, Eisenkot, Tropper and Yoaz Hendel’s Reservists party, former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who leads the joint Together list, Yisrael Beytenu chief Avigdor Liberman, Democrats chairman Yair Golan.

Notably absent was Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party, which has broken with the rest of the opposition by refusing to rule out joining a future government led by Netanyahu. Gantz has also declined to state explicitly whether he would serve in a coalition with the ultra-Orthodox parties.

But Gantz issued his own statement against the proposed Basic Law, saying it harms the value of mutual responsibility in Israel.

“Torah study is an important and central value for the Jewish people, but the State of Israel must ensure that the value of service and defending our shared home will be protected,” wrote Gantz, a former IDF chief and defense minister. “There are no rights without responsibility, and no responsibility is placed only on part of the public.”

הודעה משותפת ומיוחדת:

אנו, ראשי המפלגות החתומות מטה, קוראים לחברי הכנסת של הקואליציה לנהוג באחריות ולא להצביע בעד פגיעה קשה בצה״ל בזמן מלחמה ובניגוד לאזהרתו הדרמטית של הרמטכ״ל.

רשימת הקלון של תומכי חוק ההשתמטות תהייה לנצח לנגד עיניהם של אזרחי ישראל המשרתים והעובדים.

על החתום:…

— Gadi Eisenkot – גדי איזנקוט (@gadi_eisenkot) July 13, 2026

 

 

Speaking at his faction meeting earlier in the day, Liberman called the legislative push a “fire sale of the State of Israel and all of our basic values.”

Golan vowed to repeal the legislative agenda of the “most corrupt, extremist and violent coalition” in Israel’s history if elected, declaring that replacing “the laws of destruction” would be the first priority of the next parliament.

“Instead of the Basic Law: Torah Study, which cynically exploits Basic Laws for political ends, we will complete Israel’s Basic Laws, strengthen democracy and lay the groundwork for a constitution,” he added.

The Movement for Quality Government announced immediately following the vote that it had petitioned the High Court of Justice to strike down the Basic Law, arguing that it is an attempt to “turn draft evasion into a constitutional value.”

“Behind the innocent name lies an attempt to write exemption from military service into Israel’s Basic Laws — to circumvent High Court rulings precisely as enforcement has begun to take effect and sanctions are increasing enlistment,” the organization said in a statement, arguing that “a Basic Law born of a political deal, enacted in haste and without genuine public debate, and seeking to institutionalize permanent discrimination, cannot stand.”

The group also warned that the legislation is only “the first part of the plan,” pointing to separate coalition-backed legislation that would temporarily bar the arrest of yeshiva students who evade the draft. It argued that the two bills together amount to “a draft exemption law through the back door” and vowed to fight the measure “both in the Knesset and in the courts.”