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Monday, May 25, 2026
Deri said to to give up on passing ultra-Orthodox draft law before elections
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"
Shas chairman Aryeh Deri appears to have given up on passing the coalition’s controversial Haredi draft exemption bill before the upcoming elections, telling members of his Sephardic ultra-Orthodox party during their weekly faction meeting that “we understand that the conscription law will not pass in the current term,” Channel 13 reports.
According to the network, Deri stated that he is okay with a September 15 election date and needs “to reach an agreement with the prime minister on a date.”
The legislation — which would ostensibly increase military conscription in the Haredi community, but ultimately would enable continued exemptions for full-time yeshiva students — is widely seen as legally dubious and laden with loopholes.
On Sunday, Channel 12 reported that the Knesset’s Ashkenazi United Torah Judaism party had rejected the latest draft of the bill, calling the future of the controversial legislation into question.
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