Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled his planned statement on the controversial haredi (ultra-Orthodox) conscription bill minutes before it was scheduled at press time on Tuesday, citing “scheduling constraints.”
The remarks were set to be made after a marathon of back-to-back meetings on the conscription bill took place during a session of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. MKs criticized the legislation for not being effective enough.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) said Netanyahu had canceled his statement “because he knows we know the details of the ‘draft-evasion law,’ and he has no way to defend it.”
“This is not a historic law,” he said. “Fifty percent of the haredim will not enlist – not even 5%.”
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett said the government was advancing a law that would prevent all chances for haredi conscription.
On Monday, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth (Likud) presented his updated version of the legislation to the panel.
The outline faced major pushback from coalition and opposition MKs, narrowing the chances of the bill’s current outline passing its second and third readings.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel (New Hope-United Right), MK Dan Illouz (Likud), and former foreign affairs and defense committee chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud) criticized the conscription bill.
The legislation is a “political solution for a security issue” that could lead to another defense crisis like the October 7 massacre due to the IDF’s “severe lack of manpower,” Heskel told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
On Monday, Lapid said the opposition would vote down the bill.
Nine coalition members had publicly spoken against the bill, he said at a press conference, adding that he was in contact with other coalition MKs who would also vote against the bill.
Some Religious Zionist Party MKs have also criticized the outline of the bill, including Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer.
Support from RZP MKs is considered crucial for the legislation to pass.
The two haredi parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, left the government in July over disagreements surrounding the bill, which had previously been advanced by Edelstein.
Bill fails to enforce haredi conscription, appeases haredi parties
Critics of the revised bill say it still fails to enforce haredi conscription. They consider it a stalling tactic and an attempt to appease the haredi parties so that they will return to the government.
Some main changes in the bill that have led to criticism include a broader definition of who is considered haredi, softening sanctions on draft evaders under the age of 23, and ending sanctions on draft evaders at the age of 26.
An additional change allows for civilian security service to count as 10% of the haredi conscription quota.
The Knesset panel on Tuesday focused on a section of the legislation that addresses the integration of members of the haredi community into the civilian security service.
“It goes against reason” to count national service as part of the country’s conscription goals, Edelstein told the panel.
Bismuth said the panel would examine other sections of the bill.
The state cannot simultaneously avoid drafting tens of thousands of yeshiva students and continue funding their institutions, the High Court of Justice ruled last month. It ordered the government to craft a genuine enforcement plan within 45 days.
Sarah Ben-Nun contributed to this report.