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Sunday, October 19, 2025
Likud minister says proposed Haredi enlistment bill will ‘benefit defense establishment’
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"
A revised conscription bill being crafted by Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth will increase ultra-Orthodox enlistment in the military while ensuring that young men studying Torah full-time will be allowed to continue to do so, claims Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi.
“An understanding has formed, both among the ultra-Orthodox and the general public, that those who study will continue to study, and those who do not will enlist,” Karhi tells Radio Kol Barama.
“Within a few years, we’ll reach enlistment rates similar to those of the general public. This is a law that benefits the defense establishment while also regulating and respecting Torah scholars. It will put an end to the harassment of Torah students’ families by the former attorney general and her emissaries — they don’t actually want to draft the ultra-Orthodox.”
On Thursday, Bismuth announced that he had submitted an outline of the principles of a potential ultra-Orthodox draft bill to committee legal adviser Miri Frenkel Shor.
According to Hebrew-language news reports, 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 at 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.
Moreover, those sanctioned will not lose their driver’s licenses, although restrictions on issuing licenses to draft evaders will apply.
The Times of Israel Community.