From the Liveblog of
Thursday, October 16, 2025
Knesset defense committee chair Bismuth submits outline for potential Haredi draft bill to legal advisor
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"
Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth announces that he has submitted a document outlining the principles of a potential ultra-Orthodox draft bill to the committee’s legal advisor.
The Likud lawmaker’s office says that “based on the document, a draft law will be formulated in the coming days that will guide the committee in the continuation of the legislative process to regulate the issue of conscription.”
In a statement, Bismuth thanks Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the defense establishment — as well as former Shas MK Ariel Attias, who represented the Haredi parties in negotiations over the controversial bill.
“We are moving forward to approve a historic law, a necessary and inevitable step for Israel’s security and future,” Bismuth says.
According to the Kan public broadcaster, the document stipulates that within five years, 50 percent of the annual Haredi draft cohort will be conscripted, and the age of exemption will remain 26. Yeshiva budgets will only be cut for failing to meet enlistment quotas after a year, and personal sanctions will only go into effect after two years if the overall enlistment goal is not met.
“The principles of the evasion law that the ultra-Orthodox activists drafted for MK Boaz Bismuth are intended to thwart the recruitment of the ultra-Orthodox and to legalize the return of Shas ministers to the government,” alleges Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman.
The Times of Israel Community.