Smotrich conditions support for draft exemption bill on Haredi statement endorsing military service for those not in yeshiva

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich demands that the ultra-Orthodox community’s leaders unequivocally endorse military service for those who are not engaged in full-time Torah study as a precondition for his Religious Zionism party’s support for legislation exempting yeshiva students from conscription.

“We understand full well that enlisting Haredim into the IDF involves a deep and complex social process. It will not happen overnight, and it cannot be solved with populist slogans. Out of this understanding, we were ready for many painful compromises…for which we paid a non-trivial public and political price,” Smotrich tells reporters ahead of his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.

“But we have a basic, principled, and moral requirement of the Haredi leadership, the condition for any law must be a clear statement from the Haredi leadership: whoever is not studying Torah must enlist! This is the minimum required so that it will be possible to move forward in this important and necessary process,” Smotrich says, appealing to Haredi MKs to “show responsibility” and not lend a hand to efforts to topple the right-wing government.

Senior ultra-Orthodox spiritual leaders appear to regard efforts to legislate and regulate Haredi conscription as a stalling tactic only intended to buy time, openly stating that they have no plans to allow Haredi youth to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces, according to recordings of conversations aired on Channel 12 in January.

The Haredim decided to push for the dissolution of the Knesset last week after Netanyahu informed them that his coalition does not have a majority to pass his coalition’s controversial draft exemption bill in the current Knesset, and suggested waiting until after the 2026 elections. They further rejected Netanyahu’s proposal to allow work on the bill to continue in the next Knesset under a proposed amendment to the Law of Continuity. A preliminary vote on a bill to dissolve the Knesset is scheduled for this Wednesday.

In what is believed to be an effort to convince the Haredim to postpone elections until October, the coalition’s ultra-Orthodox draft exemption bill has been placed back on the parliamentary agenda for Wednesday, with a discussion planned in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to prepare it for the final two readings needed for it to pass into law.