UTJ lawmakers say party united in threat to quit government if conscription bill not presented by day’s end

The entire ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party stands behind the Degel Hatorah faction’s threat to exit the if Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein fails to present a draft of his Haredi military draft exemption legislation today.

Speaking with The Times of Israel during and after its weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, party insiders and MKs confirm that both Degel Hatorah and the Hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction are working in concert, with a spokesman for party chairman Yitzchak Goldknopf stating that “the factions are working together.”

Confirming Hebrew media reports that Degel Hatorah had given Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Edelstein 24 hours to present the draft bill, Agudat Yisrael MK Moshe Roth states after the meeting that they had until “until the end of the day” to comply. He put the odds of them doing so at 50-50.

In the meantime, Roth states that UTJ has decided to intensify legislative measures aimed at pressuring Edelstein into presenting the bill, which until now have consisted of boycotting coalition bills in the Knesset plenum.

“As of the moment, we are voting against the coalition,” he says. “Not only not with the coalition, not refraining, but against.”

“If he’s successful in bringing something that we could work with, then we won’t vote against the coalition, but if not, then we’ll also leave the government,” Roth states.

Netanyahu is expected to meet with Edelstein this afternoon in an effort to pressure him into presenting his draft enlistment bill. Should he present it today, it could push off UTJ’s exit by up to a week as the party debates how to respond, one insider states.