Haredi politician dismisses Likud move to oust Edelstein as a technicality

By Sam Sokol 21 July 2025, 4:54 pm

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Sam 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"

United Torah Judaism MK Yitzhak Pindrus speaks during a committee meeting at the Knesset, February 10, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Former United Torah Judaism lawmaker Yitzhak Pindrus dismisses the Likud party’s move to remove MK Yuli Edelstein as chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

“We want a law. All these technicalities don’t interest us. We’ve been through this for two and a half years. We want a law,” Pindrus tells The Times of Israel following faction whip Ofir Katz’s announcement that Likud would vote on Edelstein’s replacement on Wednesday.

Pindrus was one of three UTJ MKs pushed out of the Knesset last week under the so-called Norwegian Law, following the resignations of the party’s ministers. The Norwegian Law allows ministers and deputy ministers from large factions to resign from the Knesset, with their seats then filled by other members of their parties.

UTJ quit the coalition last Monday after being presented with a copy of a proposed enlistment bill prepared by Edelstein, which they argued violated the terms of a compromise reached last month when an effort was being made to prevent the Haredim from toppling the government ahead of the war with Iran.

They were followed on Wednesday by Sephardic ultra-Orthodox party Shas, which bolted the government while, unlike UTJ, remaining a member of the coalition.

Netanyahu reportedly recently proposed removing Edelstein as head of the committee in a bid to placate Shas, which responded that the move was too little, too late, and insisted on immediate progress on the draft exemption bill.

Neither Shas nor UTJ officially responded to the news of Edelstein’s pending ouster today.