Shas said planning to back Knesset dissolution over stymied draft-exemption bill
Netanyahu meets with Edelstein, seen as major obstacle to bill exempting Haredi youth from military service, says hopes deal can be reached to avoid elections
The Sephardic ultra-Orthodox Shas party will support the Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party’s efforts to introduce a bill to dissolve the Knesset over the coalition’s failure to pass a law exempting yeshiva students from military service, according to multiple Hebrew media reports Wednesday.
Speaking with the Haaretz daily following a faction meeting held to discuss whether or not to support the UTJ-led move, a Shas source said that the party will push to dissolve the Knesset, a move that would strip the coalition of its majority and trigger new elections.
Amid threats to his coalition, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein, who has been refusing to back down from his pledge that any law coming from his committee would levy sanctions on draft dodgers. Edelstein’s insistence has become a central obstacle in negotiations over the bill.
Following the meeting, Netanyahu’s office issued a statement saying that “there is a way to bridge the gaps on the issue of conscription,” adding that the two will meet Thursday with former Shas MK Ariel Atias and Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs “to advance the solution.”
In a separate statement, Edelstein’s spokesman said that the meeting was conducted “in a good spirit” and that “discussions will continue tomorrow.”
According to media reports, Netanyahu has been considering replacing Edelstein as chairman of the powerful Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, although this move has been rejected by the ultra-Orthodox, who believe it would deepen opposition to the bill.
There has been no public comment from Shas on the developments, although it has been coordinating its efforts with UTJ in recent weeks, with both parties having engaged in a partial legislative boycott of the coalition in an effort to exert pressure on Netanyahu.
Shas’s top rabbinic leadership is also expected to convene to discuss whether they will stay in the coalition.
Degel Hatorah, one of the two factions that make up the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism coalition party, instructed their MKs to introduce a bill to dissolve the Knesset due to the coalition’s failure to pass the bill — a longstanding UTJ goal.
With only seven Knesset seats, however, UTJ on its own does not have the ability to bring down the government, as Netanyahu’s coalition currently holds 68 out of 120 seats. Thus, any effort to do so on UTJ’s part would require the cooperation of the Sephardic Shas party.
Elections are formally scheduled for October 2026.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi proposed that Netanyahu allow him to resign from his ministerial position and replace Edelstein, the Israel Hayom daily reported. Both Karhi and Edlestein are members of Netanyahu’s Likud party.
“I hope that someone will be found who will be able to solve the problem,” and if Edelstein cannot, then “we need to find someone who will succeed,” Karhi was quoted as saying.
“This Knesset is not going anywhere — not now, and not because of cynical political pressures,” Karhi tweeted, vowing that nobody “will drag the State of Israel into unnecessary elections” during “a war for the future of the state.”
“This historic and important conscription law will be legislated – not with slogans or political maneuvers, but with responsibility and respect for the world of Torah and for Israel’s security,” he wrote.
Firebrand Likud MK Tally Gotliv slammed Deri following reports of the party’s decision, saying, “Shas voters are overwhelmingly right-wingers who will shudder at anyone who dares to harm the government’s resilience during a war on multiple fronts.”
While the final text of the bill, which has been undergoing revisions by committee staff, has not been made public, the ultra-Orthodox news site Kikar Hashabbat reported that it includes a variety of harsh sanctions that would hit draft dodgers hard financially.
Sanctions include loss of property tax reductions, public transportation discounts, tax benefits for working women married to dodgers, exclusion from the housing lottery and the cancellation of daycare and academic subsidies. The bill would also prevent draft dodgers up to the age of 29 from receiving driver’s licenses or traveling abroad and would open them up to the threat of arrest.
Commenting on the sanctions, committee member Moshe Tur-Paz, from the opposition party Yesh Atid, told The Times of Israel that the ultra-Orthodox have been receiving privileges — such as property tax discounts proportional to how many children they have — for years and that this is “unreasonable” given “the economic burden they create.”
“Regarding some of the sanctions, they are sanctions that exist anyway; it’s just a matter of activating them,” the opposition member continued, adding that most Israelis believe that those “who don’t contribute to the state by enlisting in the IDF” should receive nothing.
“I fully support all the sanctions mentioned here and I think the time has come, certainly during a war in which four soldiers were killed in a week,” Tur-Paz said.
Last June, the High Court of Justice ruled that longstanding service exemptions for yeshiva students had no legal basis, leading the IDF to begin efforts to conscript tens of thousands of previously exempt men into the military, although few have joined. Since then, the ultra-Orthodox parties have been pushing hard for legislation reinstating their special status and preventing the mass conscription of Haredim.
Currently, approximately 80,000 Haredi men between the ages of 18 and 24 are eligible for military service and have not enlisted. The army has stated that it is facing a manpower shortage and currently needs some 12,000 new soldiers — 7,000 of whom would be combat troops.
The Times of Israel Community.