Shas says it will only rejoin government if viable Haredi enlistment bill advanced

By Sam Sokol 25 July 2025, 12:03 pm

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Sam 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"

Chairman Aryeh Deri attends a meeting of the Shas party Council of Torah Sages in Jerusalem, July 16, 2025. (Flash90)

The Shas party will only rejoin Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government when it advances a conscription bill acceptable to the Haredim that would actually pass a vote in the Knesset, a spokesman for the ultra-Orthodox faction tells The Times of Israel.

“There must be a law on the table that is agreed upon by us and has a majority,” says Asher Medina, when asked about his party’s preconditions for returning.

Both the Sephardic Shas and Ashkenazi United Torah Judaism parties have been pushing hard for the passage of legislation enabling most ultra-Orthodox males to continue to avoid military or other national service, in the wake of last year’s High Court decision that such exemptions are illegal on equality grounds.

Last week, UTJ quit the coalition after being presented with a copy of a proposed enlistment bill prepared by Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein, which it argued violated the terms of a compromise reached in June, when an effort was being made to prevent the Haredim from toppling the government before the war with Iran.

They were quickly followed by Shas, which, while quitting the government, has remained part of the coalition.

To woo back the Haredi parties, Likud lawmakers voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday evening to replace Edelstein — who has said any conscription law must include sanctions on draft dodgers and their institutions of study — with MK Boaz Bismuth. Despite this, UTJ has rejected any return to the coalition without the passage of a conscription law it finds acceptable.

According to national broadcaster Kan, Shas has shown itself to be more accommodating than UTJ, with chairman Aryeh Deri indicating that his party will weigh returning to the government if Edelstein is indeed replaced, which two Knesset committees must still approve.

In a statement to Kan, a Shas spokesman denied that Deri was considering such a course or that he would even refer the issue to the party’s ruling Council of Torah Sages.