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Thursday, July 10, 2025
Vote next week on controversial Haredi draft bill removed from Knesset panel’s agenda — source
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam 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"
A vote on the coalition’s ultra-Orthodox enlistment bill has been removed from the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s agenda for next week, delaying the advancement of the controversial legislation with just weeks to go before the end of the Knesset summer session.
The bill was originally slated to appear on the agenda next Tuesday afternoon, but “at the last minute, there were disagreements, so a different bill was placed on the agenda instead,” a source familiar with the matter tells The Times of Israel. The vote would have allowed the bill to be referred to the plenum for the final two readings necessary for it to become law.
Haredi lawmakers hope to pass the bill into law before the Knesset goes on recess at the end of the month.
Members of the committee have yet to be presented with a draft of the revised legislation, whose sanctions on draft dodgers were reportedly watered down by committee chairman Yuli Edelstein last month as part of a last-ditch effort to prevent the Haredim from voting in favor of dissolving the Knesset.
After reaching an agreement in principle on Edelstein’s compromise terms to head off that crisis, the ultra-Orthodox parties announced that “understandings have been reached regarding the principles for the law preserving the status of yeshiva students,” adding that “another few days” were needed to “complete the final version” of the legislation.
The following day, however, Israel launched a series of airstrikes against Iran’s nuclear program, setting off a 12-day war and delaying any discussion of the legislation in the Knesset.
Edelstein met with former Shas MK Ariel Atias on Sunday to present the bill, but what he presented failed to satisfy the Haredi factions. Asked about the meeting, a senior UTJ source told The Times of Israel on Monday that Edelstein had presented Atias with “nonsense” and that they were still waiting to see something serious.
Another UTJ source asserted that Edelstein has presented general principles, but has not yet shown them a detailed text of the bill. The Haredi parties are currently boycotting voting on coalition legislation until presented with the new version of the legislation.
A spokesman for Edelstein declined to comment.
The Times of Israel Community.