Shas bolts gov’t for failing to enshrine Haredi non-enlistment in law, remains part of PM’s coalition

The Shas party announced Wednesday that all of its ministers would resign from the government due to the ongoing dispute over ultra-Orthodox enlistment, though it will remain part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition.

The announcement followed a meeting of the ultra-Orthodox Sephardi party’s ruling Council of Torah Sages. Reading a statement by the council, Religious Services Minister Michael Malkieli decried the government’s “continued terrible persecution against the holy yeshiva students,” which he blamed on Netanyahu’s Likud party.

The Haredi parties, Shas and the Ashkenazi United Torah Judaism, have demanded legislation enshrining the decades-long broad exemption of Haredi young men from Israel’s mandatory military conscription.

But Yuli Edelstein, the Likud MK who chairs the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, has refused to advance a bill meeting the Haredi parties’ demands, arguing that he will only support legislation that satisfies the IDF’s manpower needs after over 21 grueling months of war.

In response, earlier this week United Torah Judaism bolted the coalition, leaving it with a bare majority of 61 lawmakers in the Knesset.

Shas, by contrast, is not joining the opposition. But its members will be resigning all their positions in the government — including the ministers of health, interior, labor, welfare and religious services, as well as the deputy agriculture minister. The party’s ministers are expected to resign their positions Thursday morning, though Shas lawmakers will retain their committee chairmanships in the Knesset.

Both parties have also been boycotting votes on coalition bills in the Knesset plenum, hampering the government’s ability to pass legislation.

Malkieli told reporters the break was brought on by Edelstein’s decision to walk back promises to soften the ultra-Orthodox enlistment bill. He also attributed the decision to recent vows and demands by the IDF and attorney general to increase enforcement against draft dodgers, including barring them from leaving the country and subjecting them to arrest during encounters with the police. Malkieli called such moves “nothing less than cruel and criminal persecution against yeshiva students.”

Edelstein, he asserted, had “reversed himself on all agreements and added draconian and unacceptable demands whose sole purpose is to harm and humiliate the Torah scholars.”

According to ultra-Orthodox journalist Avraham Friend, several of the rabbis at the Council of Torah Sages meeting supported giving Netanyahu one final chance before quitting the government, but were opposed by party chairman Aryeh Deri.

An open door and veiled threat

Both the ultra-Orthodox parties have been pushing hard to pass legislation ensuring continued exemption from the draft for Haredi men. The issue gained greater urgency following a court ruling last year that the longstanding practice of granting the exemptions had no basis in law.

Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men between the ages of 18 and 24 are currently believed to be eligible for IDF service but have not enlisted. The IDF has said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits due to the strain on standing and reservist forces amid the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza and fighting on other fronts. Currently, only around 1,800 Haredim enlist annually. About 2,700 enlisted over the past year, far short of the IDF’s goal of 4,800.

Many ultra-Orthodox Jews believe that military service is incompatible with their way of life and fear that those who enlist will be secularized.

In its statement, the Council of Torah Sages seemed to leave the door open to a compromise. It said that “there is no room for any cooperation with the leftist and opposition parties” and, in what could also be viewed as a veiled threat, instructed the party’s lawmakers to enact a law exempting yeshiva students from military service “as soon as possible and no later than the opening of the Knesset winter session, so that it will be possible to maintain the existence of the government and the coalition partnership.”

The Knesset is set to enter a nearly three-month-long recess on July 27. It will reconvene on October 19 for the winter session.

Beyond calling for the passage of a bill exempting yeshiva students from military service, the rabbis also appealed to the prime minister “to do everything in his power” to reach a deal freeing the 50 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, instructing party chairman Deri to “assist him as much as possible” in this matter.

‘An illegitimate government’

Following Shas’s announcement, Edelstein reiterated comments made earlier in the day in which he had claimed that for the past year, the Haredi lawmakers had “not come up with any concrete proposal for the conscription law” but instead repeatedly presented “excuses.”

Rather than being concerned with specific issues like sanctions on draft dodgers or enlistment targets, the Haredim had instead expressed “a complete refusal” to serve their country in the military, he said, arguing that “this is not the time to overthrow the right-wing government.”

“Bring a counterproposal. My door is open to you. I undertake to review it very quickly and negotiate,” he declared.

The feud between Edelstein and the Haredi parties had come to a head last month but a compromise was reached to prevent the Haredi parties from toppling the government on the eve of the 12-day war against Iran.

On Wednesday morning, ahead of Shas’s announcement, a coalition source with knowledge of the matter told The Times of Israel that despite claiming otherwise, Edelstein did indeed breach his June compromise with the Haredi parties on enlistment, and asserted that “there is truth in them saying he took them for a ride.”

Following Shas’s announcement, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid declared that Israel was now being run by an “illegitimate” government that has no authority to make crucial decisions.

“A minority government cannot send soldiers to battle. A minority government cannot decide who will live and who will die. A minority government cannot decide the fate of Gaza, reach arrangements with Syria or Saudi Arabia. It cannot continue to transfer billions to the corrupt and the military draft dodgers at the expense of taxpayers,” he said.

He called for elections, which are currently due to take place in late 2026.

“Of course, a minority government cannot dismiss Haredim from military recruitment,” Lapid said. “It has no authority, it has no right. It is an illegitimate government.”