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ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 590

UTJ United Torah Judaism party

United Torah Judaism MK Ya'akov Tessler sits in the Knesset plenum, June 6, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
May 14, 2025, 7:38 pm
Coalition bills removed from agenda as Haredi boycott continues for second week
Ultra-Orthodox parties pressuring Netanyahu to pass a law exempting yeshiva students from military service, threaten to bring down the coalition
By Sam Sokol
Ultra-Orthodox Jews protest the IDF draft outside the Jerusalem enlistment center, April 28, 2025. (Sam Sokol/Times of Israel)
May 13, 2025, 5:15 pm
Haredim threaten to bolt coalition as IDF launches operation against draft dodgers
‘As soon as there is one arrest…we will shut down the government,’ United Torah Judaism official says
By Sam Sokol and Emanuel Fabian
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at Tel Aviv District Court to testify in his criminal trial, May 6, 2025. (Reuven Kastro/POOL)
May 11, 2025, 11:00 am
PM may call early elections to preempt Haredim over IDF draft, ministers say
Amid ultra-Orthodox threats to topple government, Netanyahu mulls national vote as way to salvage voters who won’t tolerate community’s wartime exemption, senior minister tells ToI
By Shalom Yerushalmi
United Torah Judaism MKs hold a faction meeting in the Knesset, January 27, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
May 8, 2025, 9:50 am
‘The final deadline’: Could the IDF conscription crisis bring down Netanyahu’s government?
Without a bill shielding Haredim from the draft, the Knesset’s ultra-Orthodox parties are weighing tactics from boycotting votes on coalition legislation to toppling the government
By Sam Sokol
Ultra-Orthodox Jews clash with police during a protest against being drafted to the army, in Jerusalem, May 5, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
May 7, 2025, 9:47 am
Ultra-Orthodox incensed as IDF chief orders boost in community’s conscription
Citing war developments, Eyal Zamir tells army to ‘expand and maximize’ draft notices; push reportedly aimed at up to 80,000 young men; DM Katz said to have been unaware of the order
By Emanuel Fabian and ToI Staff
Knesset Finance Committee chair Moshe Gafni (3rd from left) and other ultra-Orthodox lawmakers pictured in the Knesset as the 2025 state budget law is passed, March 25, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)
May 5, 2025, 11:07 pm
Haredi parties to boycott government votes over failure to pass IDF exemption law
Ultra-Orthodox MK warns that if legislation doesn’t pass during current Knesset session, ‘we will have a very big problem sitting in such a government’
By Sam Sokol
Knesset Finance Committee chair Moshe Gafni (3rd from left) and other ultra-Orthodox lawmakers pictured in the Knesset as the 2025 state budget law is passed, March 25, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)
April 24, 2025, 2:49 pm
Stymied on conscription, Haredi party declares itself free from coalition discipline
UTJ official says party ‘will not bring down the government’ but will vote independently unless progress is made on exempting yeshiva students from military service
By Sam Sokol
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich leads a faction meeting for his Religious Zionism party at the Knesset in Jerusalem, March 17, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
April 22, 2025, 6:07 pm
‘Send your children to fight’: Smotrich spars with Haredi MKs over hostages, IDF
Dispute among coalition members sparked after Shas and United Torah Judaism lawmakers slam finance minister for saying that ‘returning the hostages is not the most important thing’
By Sam Sokol
Ultra-Orthodox Jews study at the Ponevezh yeshiva in Bnei Brak, February 27, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
April 8, 2025, 4:17 pm
Does the 2025 state budget encourage Haredim to evade IDF service?
Critics charge that allocating over NIS 1 billion in yeshiva funding incentivizes draft evasion, while Haredim complain they are being ‘slandered’ and ‘delegitimized’
By Sam Sokol
Yisrael Beytenu party chairman MK Avigdor Liberman (left) leads a faction meeting at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on March 31, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90); Rabbi Dov Lando seen during a meeting to discuss the conscription of ultra-Orthodox Jews, in Bnei Brak, April 5, 2024. (Shlomi Cohen/Flash90)
April 3, 2025, 12:30 am
With only 2% of Haredim heeding IDF draft orders, Liberman urges action against leaders
Opposition MK accuses senior ultra-Orthodox Rabbis Dov Lando and Yitzhak Yosef of promoting evasion during wartime, a crime punishable by 15 years in prison
By Sam Sokol
Housing Minister Yitzchak Goldknopf dances with other attendants at his nephew's wedding, March 23, 2025. (Screenshot: X; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
March 24, 2025, 6:23 am
Haredi minister dances to anti-Zionist, anti-IDF song, draws bipartisan calls to fire him
Yitzchak Goldknopf filmed among crowd singing ‘We will die and not enlist [to the IDF]’; he apologizes after initially dismissing criticism as ‘incitement’; PM praises disavowal
By Sam Sokol and ToI Staff
Posters for United Torah Judaism candidate Shmuel Greenberg defaced ahead of the 2024 municipal election in Beit Shemesh. (Sam Sokol)
March 20, 2025, 5:45 pm
PM, President Herzog, Haredi ministers condemn mob attack on Beit Shemesh mayor
‘We must denounce the extremists and the violent among us,’ says United Torah Judaism chairman Goldknopf in wake of assault on Degel Hatorah’s Shmuel Greenberg
By Sam Sokol
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and coalition lawmakers attend a vote on the 2025 state budget in the Knesset plenum, March 19, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
March 20, 2025, 1:55 pm
Clearing path for budget vote, MKs pass Economic Arrangements Law as Haredim back down
Ben Gvir’s return to the coalition defangs UTJ chief Yitzchak Goldknopf’s threat to scuttle 2025 state budget unless law exempting yeshiva students from IDF service is passed first
By Sam Sokol
Ultra-Orthodox Jews outside an army recruitment office in Jerusalem, March 4, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
March 9, 2025, 3:47 pm
AG, police silent in face of growing ecosystem of Haredi evasion organizations
‘We regret that law enforcement agencies are de facto condoning criminality on such an important issue,’ says Movement for Quality Government; offense punishable by 15 years in jail
By Sam Sokol
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, right, arriving for a cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on September 27, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)
March 7, 2025, 8:39 am
Hasidic MKs tell Netanyahu they’ll oppose budget if draft exemption law not passed
Report says despite PM’s promises, Haredi draft exemption bill likely to be postponed; out of 10,000 Haredim who received draft orders since July, only 177 have enlisted, IDF says
By Sam Sokol
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