Haredi minister threatens to block budget unless draft exemption law passes – report

Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, the head of the coalition’s United Torah Judaism party, reportedly threatens to block the passage of the 2025 budget unless a bill facilitating sweeping exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men from mandatory military service is passed in the next three weeks.

According to ultra-Orthodox news site Behadrei Haredim, after members of Netanyahu’s cabinet were informed that the government will meet on October 31 to approve the state budget, Goldknopf states that “the prime minister is aware that the budget law will not come up for discussion in the government until the enlistment law is passed.”

Goldknopf’s ultimatum comes just under a month after Netanyahu reportedly promised him that he would fast-track the legislation when the Knesset reconvenes at the end of this month, following a previous threat not to support the budget.

Failure to pass the budget would bring down the government.

This summer, the High Court of Justice ruled that there is no legal basis for exempting Haredi men from the military draft. A bill regulating the issue is currently stuck in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, whose chairman, Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, has said that it will only pass if lawmakers can reach a “broad consensus” on the matter.

Addressing a conference earlier this week, Edelstein stated that whatever bill his committee passes will not fully satisfy either side but that it would be a “good law” that would help mobilize additional necessary manpower for the IDF.