Lapid: Katz has secret draft law document used to win budget support from Haredi parties

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, speaking to the Knesset plenum, claims Defense Minister Israel Katz has a secret document outlining the principles of an ultra-Orthodox draft law that was presented to Haredi parties to win their support for the budget.

“Without this document, the Haredim weren’t going to vote for the budget last week,” Lapid says. “Then they voted, unanimously, for the budget. Why did they change their mind? They weren’t persuaded. They received the commitment they asked for.”

A government-backed bill dealing with the issue of ultra-Orthodox conscription is currently stuck in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee

“The Haredim are happy with this document… because it says not one Haredi person will be drafted. There won’t be a draft. It’s a total fraud,” Lapid says.

He accuses the government of lying twice when asked if such an agreement existed, and calls on the defense minister to present the alleged document publicly, or else “he will lose what little of the public’s trust he has left,” saying if not, he will be remembered as “the Minister for Evasion Affairs.”

The Yesh Atid chief claims that ex-defense minister Yoav Gallant was fired because he refused to sign off on a previous version of the same document and that IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi is also being pushed out of his role for opposing it.

The opposition leader calls on journalists to expose the document, reiterates his call for Katz to do so, and vows that he will expose it if no one else does.

Finally, Lapid addresses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying the premier has “sent fighters, for a year and two months, to a war caused by your lack of responsibility, for which you are guilty. They’re killed every day, they’re wounded every day, their lives are destroyed, their families are crushed. If this law passes, how will you look them in the eyes?”

“If this law passes, you have no right to send a single soldier to war. Whoever signs off on a distinction between blood and blood has no mandate to manage the war, and has no mandate to lead the state,” Lapid says.