Senior Haredi rabbi’s opposition halts Knesset’s renewal of talks on draft exemption bill

The resumption of parliamentary debate over the government’s controversial bill exempting yeshiva students from military service has been delayed due to ultra-Orthodox opposition, with sources stating that Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch, one of the Degel HaTorah party’s two senior rabbinic leaders, has come out against the legislation as currently written.

The bill, which critics including senior IDF officers and the attorney general argue will not significantly increase enlistment, was taken off the table with the outbreak of the US-Israeli war with Iran. However, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth announced at the end of March that he will continue advance it and Shas chairman Aryeh Deri has predicted that it will pass in the summer after the parliamentary recess, which ends May 10.

While many expected the committee to resume discussions during the current recess, a schedule distributed to panel members this morning contains no reference to the legislation.

“There’s only one meeting and it’s not even about the Draft Law. I understand that Rabbi Hirsch came back from overseas with the view that the law is bad and won’t fix anything, so he gave the order to stop advancing it,” says committee member Moshe Tur-Paz.

A senior source in Agudat Yisrael, which together with Degel HaTorah comprises the larger United Torah Judaism party, agrees, telling The Times of Israel that “only Rabbi Moshe Hillel does not agree as of this moment.”

Both statements were in line with recent reporting regarding Rabbi Hirsch’s opposition, which stands in contrast with the support shown by Rabbi Dov Lando, the party’s overall spiritual leader.