Coalition said pressing Knesset legal adviser to present new version of Haredi draft law

By Sam Sokol 16 February 2026, 11:22 am

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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"

Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth (center) and committee legal adviser Miri Frenkel Shor (right) during a discussion of the government's proposed law to regulate ultra-Orthodox conscription and exemptions, December 28, 2025. (Noam Moskowitz/Office of the Knesset Spokesperson)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition has called on Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Legal Advisor Miri Frenkel Shor to present a new draft of the bill exempting yeshiva students from military service by the end of the weekend in order to convince the Haredi parties to support the 2026 state budget in its final readings, Channel 12 reports.

According to the report, when finished, the revision, which is unlikely to be ready on time, will be presented to senior ultra-Orthodox rabbis for approval before being advanced to a committee vote. The ultra-Orthodox Emess news site reports that while there have been talks between Frenkel Shor and Haredi representatives, she has not yet begun writing the revised bill.

“There are no words. A day after the draft dodgers almost carried out a lynching of our female soldiers, the October 7 government is rewarding them with a sweeping law exempting them from service,” Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman posts on X in response.

The Haredi Shas and Degel HaTorah parties voted in favor of the first readings of the 2026 budget and accompanying Arrangements Law but have said that they will withhold their support pending passage of the bill regulating ultra-Orthodox conscription.

Ultra-Orthodox representatives have pushed back hard against changes demanded by Frenkel Shor, who has expressed significant criticism of the bill and called for the addition of several amendments to the legislation that are opposed by the Haredim.

She has previously warned that the bill violates the principle of equality and fails to meet security needs. She has also called to reexamine a clause ending sanctions at age 26 and argued that by effectively resetting the status of yeshiva students who ignored call-up orders over the past year, the legislation would grant legal immunity to Haredim but not to non-Haredi evaders.