From the Liveblog of
Sunday, June 28, 2026
Opposition MKs, along with 1 coalition MK, slam bill equating Torah study with IDF service
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"
Opposition lawmakers slam their ultra-Orthodox colleagues during the first of a series of scheduled Knesset panel hearings this week on the coalition’s controversial proposed law to declare Torah study a foundational value of Israel, accusing them of supporting mass draft evasion and desecrating the Torah.
Lawmakers vocally object after United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf’s claims that there are “also draft dodgers who live in Tel Aviv,” that those studying Torah full-time and not enlisting are “a small group,” and that anybody who claims that Haredim do not serve is “denying reality.”
Haredim who do not serve “are not draft dodgers” and are contributing through their Torah studies, Goldknopf says, calling on lawmakers on the Knesset House Committee deliberating on the bill “be as one man with one heart” and vote unanimously to advance it.
Opposition lawmakers erupt in anger, with Yesh Atid MK Merav Cohen calling his words “a slap in the face” and bemoaning the fact that “even three years of a difficult war have not made you change your mind.”
Cohen says the law — which states that recognizing Torah study as a foundational value is intended to create “a just balance with respect to other foundational values” — would only serve to allow Haredim to continue avoiding military service while continuing to receive billions of shekels in government funding.
“You are causing a desecration of God’s name, and you should be ashamed of it because it is not Jewish, not Zionist, not Israeli, not anything,” she says.
Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer accuses the ultra-Orthodox of bringing about a civil war and cites the Biblical verse “Shall your brothers go to war while you sit here?”
Religious Zionism MK Moshe Solomon, who broke ranks with the coalition to vote against the bill in its preliminary reading, also argues against it, declaring that “legislating a law about Torah study harms Torah study, harms the value of Torah study, and harms the ability of the entirety of the People of Israel, across its whole spectrum, to respect, love, and embrace the Torah world.”
Hitting back, committee chairman and coalition whip Likud MK Ofir Katz accuses Solomon of serving “the left’s campaign.”
The Times of Israel Community.