Basic Law

Bill passes 58-54 despite legal warnings, IDF opposition • Netanyahu heckled by opposition lawmakers shouting 'disgrace' before leaving plenum ahead of the vote

The haredi-backed Basic Law passed its final Knesset votes after weeks of coalition tensions and warnings that it could encourage draft evasion.

This law means by “Torah study” includes only haredi students at haredi yeshivas who are engaged almost exclusively with religious issues, and most of whom have very little, if any, general education

What’s really happening is a payoff to the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) political parties, against the will of an overwhelming majority of Israelis and in direct defiance of the Supreme Court.

Our soldiers are exhausted. Over half of our reserve soldiers have logged hundreds of days of military duty. We can’t continue to ask them to shoulder the burden alone.

The proposed Basic Law: Torah Study would grant constitutional status to Torah study, but in practice it would turn a sacred obligation into a political and legal instrument. That would harm Torah...

Haredi leadership is throwing everything at the wall: a Basic Law, road-blocking protests organized by the party, voting boycotts in the Knesset – anything to convince their base they can deliver

Under the guise of concern for the world of Torah, two bills are on the table: the Basic Law: Torah Study on the one side, and the Law of Exemption from Arrests on the other. 

The agreement is expected to allow the bill to advance in the Knesset's House Committee ahead of its final second and third readings after previous coaltion objections to wording.

The House Committee had convened to hear revisions on the contentious bill that seeks to enshrine Torah study as a fundamental value in the country’s Basic Law, ahead of final readings.