Likud MK: Proposed Haredi draft bill ‘isn’t perfect’ but is a ‘good start’

By Sam Sokol

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1 December 2025, 11:19 am Edit

Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. 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’s proposed bill regulating ultra-Orthodox conscription “isn’t perfect” but is a “good start,” Likud MK Tsega Melaku tells The Times of Israel during a heated debate on the controversial legislation.

According to Melaku, who is not a member of the committee but whose support will be needed for the bill to pass into law, lawmakers “need to fix it before the final readings” and if a bill isn’t passed “we won’t have anything.”