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Wednesday, January 28, 2026
Knesset committee cancels planned discussions on Haredi draft exemption bill tomorrow
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"
The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee cancels a series of discussions on the government’s draft exemption bill planned for Thursday after chairman Boaz Bismuth’s (Likud) announcement last night that lawmakers had finished discussing all clauses of the controversial legislation, paving the way for its advancement to its final two readings in the Knesset plenum.
There still remain significant gaps between the demands of the ultra-Orthodox parties and the recommended changes to the bill being advanced by the committee’s legal adviser, and the behind-the-scenes wrangling as Bismuth drafts a final version of the bill based on his panel’s discussions could take one or two weeks.
Bismuth’s decision to announce the end of discussions is widely seen as an effort to show the Haredim — whose displeasure with changes demanded by the legal advisor has threatened to tank their support for the 2026 state budget, the first reading of which is scheduled for today — that he is making progress toward the bill’s passage.
The bill — which introduces measures aimed at increasing military conscription among members of the Haredi community but ultimately enshrines continued exemptions for full-time yeshiva students — has garnered opposition both among the opposition and members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition.
The Times of Israel Community.