From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Edelstein says defense committee will soon start drafting final version of Haredi conscription bill
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. 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"
Addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud) announces that his committee will continue hearing testimony and background data for several more sessions before drafting a final version of the coalition’s controversial bill regulating ultra-Orthodox conscription.
“We will continue with a few more final debates to cover all the relevant material and hear from all the relevant parties, and then we will move on to writing the draft law,” he says.
Despite the prime minister’s assurances to his ultra-Orthodox allies that it will pass, the legislation has long been stuck in committee, with Edelstein pledging that he will “only produce a real conscription law that will significantly increase the IDF’s conscription base.”
Edelstein’s comments came after the publication of a recording of a call between Haredi representatives and an adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which the adviser could be heard stating that the bill would be passed “with or without” Edelstein.
During today’s committee hearing, lawmakers are presented with data from the Central Bureau of Statistics showing that ultra-Orthodox Jews currently constitute nearly a quarter of the annual draft cohort of 18-year-old Jewish males in Israel.
The Times of Israel Community.