No breakthrough in coalition heads’ meeting on Haredi draft bill, as tensions remain

A Sunday meeting of coalition leaders aimed at bridging gaps between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud and a pair of ultra-Orthodox parties over legislation exempting Haredi yeshiva students from military service ended with no major breakthroughs.

Netanyahu reportedly recognizes that blanket draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men could add fuel to the ongoing massive protests against his hardline government’s efforts to overhaul Israel’s judiciary.

The Haredi Shas and United Torah Judaism parties, on the other hand, point to coalition agreements in which Likud committed to quickly passing a long-elusive draft exemption law — a commitment that has already been broken, as the ruling bloc failed to pass the legislation during its first parliamentary session earlier this year.

Instead, the coalition focused nearly all of its attention on advancing the judicial overhaul, successfully passing the first piece of legislation in the highly controversial package before the Knesset recess last month.

Coalition whip Ofir Katz said last week that the ruling bloc will next work to pass the Haredi draft exemption law in the next Knesset session, before it resumes legislating the rest of the judicial overhaul.

But there appeared to be apprehension in the Likud about pursuing that strategy, while the Shas and United Torah Judaism parties appeared not to agree with the version of the bill that Netanyahu’s party would like to pass.

In their Sunday meeting, the sides agreed to continue talks on the matter and to try and draw less attention to the ongoing discussions, Channel 12 news reported.

Nonetheless, other networks quoted officials from the various sides who continued the mudslinging seen over the past several days.

“There will be no law of conscription without compromise,” a senior Likud official told the Haredi coalition partners, according to the Ynet news site.

Netanyahu is wary that blanket exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox could add fuel to the ongoing massive protests against the overhaul, Channel 12 said. Likud officials have reportedly told the Haredi parties that the public atmosphere is too volatile to legislate that law.

Channel 12, which did not cite a source, reported that the Haredi parties continued to demand in the meeting with Netanyahu on Sunday that male members of their community be completely exempt from military service, and made clear to the premier that they would not back the advancement of other government bills until the exemptions are enacted into law.

The ultra-Orthodox factions also reportedly insisted that the bill be passed in a manner that shields it from scrutiny by the High Court of Justice, while Netanyahu said they should not move to do so unless the legislation is first struck down by the court.

The Haredi parties are strong proponents of the so-called “override clause,” which would allow the Knesset to preemptively or retroactively block judicial decisions striking down legislation and is considered one of the most radical elements of the judicial overhaul. Haredi party leaders have insisted the bill should move ahead, even as Netanyahu has signaled that his government would not pursue it at this time.

The bill is important to Haredi parties because the Supreme Court has in recent years nixed several initiatives on key issues for Haredi voters, including the exemption from military service enjoyed by yeshiva students under the age of 26.

The judicial overhaul plan — and in particular the override clause — has been met with months of protest demonstrations by critics who say it will dangerously erode Israel’s democratic nature.

According to a senior Likud official cited by Ynet, pursuing the draft exemption bill at this time “undermines the coalition more than the legal reform, and it is worthwhile for representatives of the ultra-Orthodox public to understand this. They have no choice.”

United Torah Judaism party leader Yitzhak Goldknopf “needs to connect with the Israeli reality,” said the senior official. “After all, we come out against refusal [by reservists] because it is dangerous to the security of the state. So the Likud will give a hand to mass [Haredi draft] evasion? It won’t happen.”

An unnamed Likud minister argued that the law was also unpopular with Likud voters. “A large majority of Likud voters are unwilling to accept or support this draft law. It’s not just the left, but the Likud voters,” he told Ynet.

Also on Sunday, National Unity party chair Benny Gantz of the opposition met with Meir Zvi Bergman, a prominent Haredi rabbi, in an apparent effort to build a bridge with the ultra-Orthodox community. In June, Bergman reached out to UTJ MK Yitzhak Pindrus to express his support after the latter said that the LGBTQ community poses a greater threat to Israel than the Hezbollah or Hamas terror groups.

בלעדי: תיעוד מתוך הפגישה בין בני גנץ לרב ברגמן, מזקני הרבנים הליטאיים –
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During their Sunday meeting, the 95-year-old Bergman told Gantz that the ultra-Orthodox parties would not be able to compromise on securing draft exemptions for their yeshiva students, according to footage aired by Channel 12. However, Bergman indicated that the Haredi political leadership was much more willing to compromise regarding the overhaul, saying that the matter “has nothing to do with us.”

The Walla news site later cited an anonymous, non-Haredi member of the coalition, who castigated the ultra-Orthodox parties for threatening not to back the rest of the overhaul, claiming that they had forgotten that the judicial shakeup would benefit their interests just as much as Likud’s.

“If the issue of the [judicial] reform has nothing to do with the ultra-Orthodox, then maybe the overhaul clause isn’t needed,” the source said. “When the High Court of Justice gives the Western Wall to the Reform movement and continues to invalidate the draft exemption law, they better not come crying to us.”

The High Court has heard petitions by the Reform movement demanding that it compel the government to implement a previously-agreed compromise, which would have seen the state formalize an egalitarian prayer section at the Western Wall.

Ahead of the cabinet meeting Sunday, Goldknopf said that the Netanyahu government “will do what it said it would do. We have coalition agreements, and just as we have met our commitments, we hope they will also meet theirs.”