Report: Shas eyeing return to government next week amid apparent progress on Haredi conscription law

The ultra-Orthodox Shas party could return to the government as early as next week, the Kan public broadcaster reports, after Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth announced that he had submitted a document outlining the principles of a potential ultra-Orthodox draft bill to the committee’s legal adviser.

Shas resigned from the government in July over the failure to pass a draft exemption law for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.

Now, however, the party is keen to return to the government quickly, as the temporary ministerial appointments made due to the resignation of Shas lawmakers will become permanent on October 20, Kan reports.

Prior to its resignation, Shas held the health, interior, labor, welfare, and religious services portfolios.

The portfolios were transferred temporarily to Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Tourism Minister Haim Katz in Shas’s absence.

Previous reports have indicated that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is actively working to bring the ultra-Orthodox party back into the fold, in a bid to stabilize his coalition, which currently lacks a majority.