Haredim deny PM told them draft exemption bill now has majority support in Knesset

Ultra-Orthodox political sources deny claims by officials close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he has managed to convince a majority of the Knesset to pass the controversial Haredi draft exemption bill before the end of the government’s term in office.

Haredi leaders called for the dissolution of the Knesset last week after Netanyahu informed them that his coalition wouldn’t have a majority to pass the bill in the current Knesset. Tomorrow, lawmakers are due to start the process of dissolving the Knesset and triggering elections.

But this evening, a senior official in the Prime Minister’s Office claimed that following pressure by Netanyahu on holdouts within his coalition, enough have come around to allow the bill to move forward.

“We achieved the necessary majority and that is what is important,” the official stated, adding that Netanyahu’s staff had conveyed this message to Haredi leaders.

Asked about this claim, one senior United Torah Judaism figure dismisses it as “nonsense” while a spokesman for Degel HaTorah chairman Moshe Gafni says that they had not received such a message. Degel HaTorah is a faction of UTJ.

“He doesn’t need to give notice. He should just bring the bill to a vote,” the spokesman states.

On Monday, the draft exemption bill was placed back on the parliamentary agenda, with an announcement that discussions in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee would resume tomorrow in order to prepare it for the final two readings needed for it to pass into law.

Haredi political sources have 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.