Haredi minister said threatening elections as ‘override clause’ standoff escalates

A standoff between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners has escalated over the question of whether an “override clause” will be legislated to shield military draft exemptions for Haredi men from judicial review.

Several Hebrew media outlets quote unnamed sources in Netanyahu’s Likud party saying no such override — which is likely to face intense opposition and possibly cause international fallout — will be introduced, despite a Likud pledge in coalition deals to legislate it, since the “situation has changed.”

But sources in the Haredi parties Shas and United Torah Judaism are quoted as insisting on the promise being kept, with one unnamed Haredi minister explicitly threatening to topple the government and call early elections over the matter.

“The instruction we received from the rabbis was unequivocal: without an enlistment law that includes an override clause on this issue, we will quit the government,” the minister is quoted as saying by the Kikar HaShabbat news site.

“There will be no games, Netanyahu won’t be able to postpone this or ask for compromises. This is the rabbis’ position, even at the price of going to elections.”