From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, January 28, 2026
Goldknopf: Agudat Yisrael will vote against budget due to jailing of Haredi draft evaders
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"
Addressing the Knesset plenum, United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf declares that he and members of his Agudat Yisrael faction will vote against the 2026 state budget, declaring that his community feels “persecuted” by a government that arrests yeshiva students who dodge the IDF draft.
“There are things that are more important than a budget, and in their name we oppose the budget. The State of Israel without the Torah of Israel does not need a budget,” he states, accusing the government of turning yeshiva students into “criminals” and “second- or third-class citizens.”
“Our intention in this vote is not to overthrow the government,” he continues, adding a direct appeal to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to postpone the budget vote until a law regulating the status of yeshiva students can be passed.
Goldknopf’s Agudat Yisrael faction opposes the current enlistment bill on the table, despite the fact that it would exempt yeshiva students from conscription because it contains sanctions.
Degel HaTorah, UTJ’s second faction, supports both the bill and the budget, as does the Sephardi Haredi party Shas. The budget is seen as likely to advance.
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