Finance minister says he seeks ‘amendments’ to controversial Haredi draft bill

By Sam Sokol 20 December 2025, 10:31 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"

Finance Ministry Bezalel Smotrich holds a press conference at the Finance Ministry in Jerusalem on November 4, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Speaking with Channel 12’s Meet the Press, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says that his Religious Zionism party is “working on several amendments” to the government’s bill regulating Haredi conscription and exemptions, and that it will only vote for an amended version of the controversial legislation.

Calling for “a drastic change in the responsibility the Haredim take for the State of Israel,” Smotrich says that he wants to see members of the ultra-Orthodox community serving as “commanders and generals in the IDF” as well as playing leading roles in growing the Israeli economy.

“I want the Haredim to take responsibility for the State of Israel, just as religious Zionism has been doing for decades and is transforming the country. Combining religious Zionism and the Haredim is taking the State of Israel to a completely different place,” he says.

Last week, Smotrich’s party denied reports that it agreed to support the coalition’s controversial ultra-Orthodox military draft exemption law, after reports of the decision sparked criticism from figures in the religious Zionist community.

In a statement, the party declared that it will “vote only for a law that will bring about real and rapid enlistment of Haredim into the IDF, in order to meet Israel’s security needs and ease the burden on the fighters and their families.”

Several members of Smotrich’s party have come out strongly against the bill, with Immigration Minister Ofir Sofer slamming it as a “shameful law” and pledging to vote against it, even if it costs him his cabinet position.

Not everybody in Religious Zionism is opposed to the bill, which would continue to grant exemptions from Israel’s mandatory draft to full-time yeshiva students while purportedly increasing conscription among graduates of Haredi educational institutions.

In a tweet last week, Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rothman appeared to defend the legislation after the Bank of Israel released a report warning that the bill will not result in enough soldiers enlisting to fill the country’s security needs or reduce the economic costs of reserve duty.