From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, June 23, 2026
Knesset agenda cleared of legislation amid Haredi boycott
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"
All bills are removed from the Knesset plenum’s agenda as the Haredi parties’ boycott of coalition legislation continues, after the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties decline to attend a meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office intended to break the stalemate.
The boycott, which is now in its second week, was initially prompted by the coalition’s refusal to advance to a plenum vote the so-called Daycare Law, which would restore daycare subsidies for the children of draft evaders, but has since grown to encompass other Haredi conscription-related demands.
“The violent arrests of Torah students must stop! We informed the coalition chairman that as long as the law to stop arrests and the Basic Law on Torah study are not advanced, we will not support any coalition legislation,” Shas chairman Aryeh Deri told party lawmakers during their weekly faction meeting yesterday afternoon.
Haredi legislators, who began the process of dissolving the Knesset in May over the coalition’s failure to pass a controversial law restoring yeshiva students’ draft exemptions, have since pushed for the passage of legislation declaring Torah study a foundational value of the State of Israel, restoring daycare subsidies to the children of draft dodgers, and halting the arrests of evaders.
The Times of Israel Community.