At odds with others in party, Rothman defends Haredi draft bill, slams Bank of Israel over its criticism

By Sam Sokol 11 December 2025, 1:21 pm

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Sam 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"

MK Simcha Rothman, right, leads a hearing of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee at the Knesset in Jerusalem, November 17, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rothman slams the Bank of Israel after it releases a report warning against the coalition’s proposed Haredi draft exemption law, arguing in a tweet that the financial institution does not have the requisite expertise to weigh in on the controversial legislation, which it said will not result in enough soldiers enlisting to cover the country’s security needs or reduce the economic costs of reserve duty.

“I didn’t know what I thought about the draft law, and then came the report by the experts on social processes and recruitment targets at the Bank of Israel,” Rothman writes.

“I am eagerly awaiting the letter from 100 doctors saying that the law harms health,” he quips, arguing that the “only truly professional and important message that has actually been examined and researched, the Shkedi Committee, is completely absent from the public discourse.”

That committee, led by a former commander of the Israeli Air Force, Maj. Gen. (res.) Eliezer Shkedi, laid out how the country could effectively recruit and integrate members of the ultra-Orthodox community into the IDF, including through the adoption of Haredi-oriented service tracks. The IDF has several such tracks, including the recently established Hasmonean Brigade.

“Recruitment will come when the IDF builds the appropriate frameworks for it, and the purpose of the law should be to allow this important process of drafting and integration to take place — not to interfere with it. You won’t hear that opinion echoed in the media, because it disrupts the campaign. And these are exactly the matters that we in the Religious Zionism party are demanding be included in the law,” Rothman adds.

Rothman’s comments appear at odds with several other members of his party who have heavily criticized the bill. In a press conference last week, Immigration Minister Ofir Sofer condemned the “shameful law” and pledged to vote against it, even if it cost him his cabinet position.

On Wednesday evening, the party denied reports that it agreed to support the bill after consultations with senior rabbis, declaring that it would “vote only for a law that will bring about real and rapid enlistment of Haredim into the IDF, in order to meet Israel’s security needs and ease the burden on the fighters and their families.”