Shas will decide on Haredi draft regulation once it’s ‘on the table,’ chairman’s office says

By Sam Sokol 30 October 2025, 11:36 am

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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"

Shas party chief Aryeh Deri at the scene of suspected arson at a Jerusalem synagogue on June 8, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Speaking with the Ynet news site, a spokesman for Shas chairman Aryeh Deri says the ultra-Orthodox party will only decide whether to support a controversial government-backed law regulating Haredi enlistment after referring the legislation to its rabbinic leadership.

“We saw leaks, not a law. When it is placed on the table, we will bring it to the rabbis and they will decide,” says Asher Medina, referring to this week’s media reports regarding the content of the bill, which is set to be presented to members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday.

Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth’s proposal reportedly features reduced penalties for draft evasion and lowered requirements for draft exemption for yeshiva students, drawing criticism from former committee chief and fellow Likud lawmaker Yuli Edelstein, who dismissed it as a “draft-dodging scheme.”

Speaking with Ynet, Medina says that Edelstein, who was booted from the committee on Wednesday, “deceived us.”

Edelstein was ousted as chairman of the powerful committee in July, after Shas and United Torah Judaism quit the government over his proposed enlistment bill, which would have levied harsh sanctions on draft evaders.

MK Yuli Edelstein attends a House Committee meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on August 4, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Shas last week quit all of its coalition posts to protest the failure to legislate a draft exemption for yeshiva students and is one of the backers of a mass prayer rally against conscription in Jerusalem this afternoon.

The party’s top rabbis have been highly critical of Deri’s handling of the conscription issue. In leaked recordings aired by Channel 12 last week, several members of the party’s ruling Council of Torah Sages were heard advocating for fresh elections and for boycotting a future governing coalition if their demands on draft exemptions for Haredi yeshiva students weren’t met.

“If my father were alive, none of this would be happening,” Shas spiritual leader and ex-Sephardic chief rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, who succeeded his father Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, said, blaming Deri for the lack of progress in regulating Haredi draft exemptions and for remaining in the coalition despite failure to procure the desired legislation. “If my father were alive, he would yell at him.”