Poll: 47% oppose draft law, majority thinks it won’t lead ultra-Orthodox to serve

Forty-seven percent of respondents to a Channel 12 poll say they oppose the government’s new draft law, which will formalize the exemption from military service for thousands of ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.

Just 19% of respondents support the bill, while 13% say they have no opinion and 21% say they haven’t heard of the law.

Asked whether they think ultra-Orthodox will serve in the army as a result of the law, 54% say no, 20% say yes and 26% say they don’t know.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox coalition partners have threatened to topple the government if it doesn’t pass the draft law. Former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, whom Netanyahu fired in November in part over the ex-general’s opposition to the law, announced this week that he would resign from the Knesset in protest over the bill.

Asked whom they trust more to cater to the nation’s interests, Netanyahu or Gallant, 41% of respondents to the Channel 12 survey say Gallant, as opposed to 33% who say Netanyahu. Another 19% say neither, and 7% say they don’t know.

Asked why Netanyahu had fired Gallant, 48% say to enable the passage of the law enshrining Haredi non-service in the IDF, while 40% said for “professional reasons.”

The poll was conducted by Mano Geva’s Midgam polling company in cooperation with the iPanel online research firm. Channel 12 does not provide a sample size or margin of error.