From the Liveblog of
Sunday, May 17, 2026
Haredi draft exemption bill on Knesset panel agenda for Wednesday
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"
The coalition’s ultra-Orthodox draft exemption bill has been placed back on the parliamentary agenda for Wednesday, with a discussion planned in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to prepare the controversial legislation for the final two readings needed to pass it into law.
Earlier today, Haredi political sources told the press that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office offered to resume discussions in the committee in an effort to postpone elections until October, while the Haredim want a September date during the High Holidays. The suggestion was rejected by the ultra-Orthodox, with Degel Hatorah spiritual leader Rabbi Dov Lando telling lawmakers “not to get drawn into political games and to support the dissolution of the Knesset this coming Wednesday.”
The Haredim decided to push for the dissolution of the Knesset after Netanyahu informed them that his coalition does not have a majority to push the controversial bill through, and suggested waiting until after the 2026 elections. They further rejected Netanyahu’s proposal allowing work on the bill to continue in the next Knesset under a proposed amendment to the Law of Continuity.
The coalition’s draft exemption bill — which would ostensibly increase military conscription in the Haredi community, but ultimately enshrines continued exemptions for full-time yeshiva students — is widely seen as legally iffy and loophole-laden and has generated intense resistance even among members of Netanyahu’s coalition.
It was taken off the table in March with the outbreak of the US-Israeli war with Iran. However, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth later announced that he would continue to advance it.
Yashar chairman Gadi Eisenkot slams Netanyahu for continuing to push the bill, calling it “another desperate attempt” by the premier “to buy himself a few more weeks in power at the expense of the national interest of strengthening the IDF during a war.”
The Times of Israel Community.