After delays, Knesset defense committee to begin hearings on Haredi conscription bill next week

After repeated delays, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth (Likud) will launch a new set of hearings next week on the government’s controversial bill regulating ultra-Orthodox conscription after receiving a green light from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to national broadcaster Kan.

Despite Bismuth’s announcement in October that he would soon submit a revised draft of the bill to the committee with the intention of bringing it to a final plenum vote in December, progress has been marked by repeated delays caused by ultra-Orthodox intransigence and internal opposition to the bill within the coalition.

The United Torah Judaism party’s Degel HaTorah faction announced last week that it had received a green light from its senior spiritual leaders to support the bill, while a senior figure in fellow Haredi party Shas told The Times of Israel that it was also in favor.

Kan reports that Shas chairman Aryeh Deri has said that Netanyahu agreed to rabbinic demands for changes to the bill, a likely reference to either reducing sanctions on draft evaders or lowering enlistment goals. The network further indicates that the revised text of the bill could be presented to lawmakers as early as tomorrow, in preparation for next week’s committee discussions.