The opposition party heads met and jointly called for early elections and vowed to fight against the government’s recent developments with the controversial haredi (ultra-Orthodox) conscription law.
Those who attended the Saturday night meeting were part of the recently launched forum called “The change bloc,” which includes opposition leader MK Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid), former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot (Yashar!), former prime minister Naftali Bennett (Bennett 2026), MK Benny Gantz (Blue and White), MK Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu), and Yair Golan (The Democrats).
“We intend to fight the draft-dodging law – in the Knesset, in the streets, and in the legal arena,” the party leaders said in a joint statement following the meeting.
“Due to the heavy burden on regular service members and reservists, we demand that the army act according to the law and increase efforts to recruit haredim.”
“The overwhelming majority of the people of Israel want equal conscription for everyone, and we will fight to make that happen,” they said.
Haredi draft causes controversy
The statements come as the government continues to develop an outline for a haredi draft law. Critics have argued that the current proposal fails to enforce mandatory conscription for haredim, claiming that the government is attempting to appease haredi political parties. The government has also been sharply criticized for failing to draft haredim to the army throughout the two-year war while the military lacked manpower.
“We will continue to act with all our strength to bring about elections as quickly as possible,” the party leaders stated.
The group also criticized the recent broadcasting reform bill, which passed its first reading in the Knesset plenum last week. The controversial bill seeks to restructure Israel’s broadcasting system, including the establishment of a single authority to regulate audiovisual content uniformly across all platforms.
“The continued attempts to undermine the judicial system and the broadcasting laws are a full revival of the regime coup and an attempt to interfere in the electoral process in an election year. We will not allow this and will fight it,” the party leaders stated.
They also called for a state commission of inquiry into the events of the October 7 Hamas massacre, stating, “We firmly believe that restoring trust and a state commission of inquiry are the only way to repair the trust between the country’s citizens and its institutions.”
The last meeting between the opposition party leaders was held a month ago, in October, after the leaders had announced their plans to create a permanent forum for the change bloc to hold meetings.
In the meeting, the leaders also spoke on plans to trigger early elections in the Knesset’s ongoing winter session, rather than the scheduled date in October 2026.
The opposition leaders have received criticism for not releasing pictures of the joint meetings after they occur.
Members of the Arab parties were not invited to be a part of the change bloc forum, which is described as being only for “Zionist opposition parties.”