Deri says Shas won’t join next government unless Haredi draft exemptions are enshrined in law

Shas chairman Aryeh Deri declares that his party will not join or support the next government unless it passes legislation preserving sweeping military service exemptions for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students, making the issue a condition for the Haredi party’s participation in any future coalition.

“There will be no government in Israel with Shas’s support or participation unless the status of yeshiva students is regulated,” Deri tells the Haredi news outlet Kikar HaShabbat in an interview, without giving a timeline.

The declaration follows a similar ultimatum from United Torah Judaism, the other major Haredi party, with which Shas signed a surplus-vote agreement this week ahead of the October 27 election.

“United Torah Judaism will not enter a government that does not actually pass the law regulating the status of yeshiva students, known as the draft law. Period,” UTJ chairman Yaakov Asher told Kikar HaShabbat on Monday.

“We do not belong to any bloc. Whoever wants us should come… and ask for our bloc’s support. That is the decision we have made for now,” he said.

The comments follow a Channel 12 report last month that said UTJ would not oppose a government led by election frontrunner Gadi Eisenkot, amid lingering anger over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s failure to pass legislation exempting ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students from military service, a move that could potentially deprive the premier of crucial support needed to form a government.

While Eisenkot has pledged to end sweeping draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men and said that no Haredi party currently meets his conditions for joining a government, he has also previously signaled openness to governing with Haredi parties, particularly Shas.