Tel Aviv [Israel], July 6 (ANI/TPS): Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's departure for Washington was delayed Sunday as tensions escalated with his Haredi Orthodox coalition partners over the contentious military draft law.
Shas and United Torah Judaism threatened to boycott Monday's Knesset session unless they received a preliminary draft of the proposed legislation, forcing an 11th-hour scramble in Jerusalem. Reports suggested that the delayed departure would be brief.
Under pressure, Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein presented the core points of the draft to Shas MK Ariel Atias.
Though not a finalised bill, Edelstein's associates stressed that the version shared reflects the law's current trajectory. The move came amid threats by the Haredi factions to paralyse the coalition, a dramatic escalation from their earlier position to only boycott private member bills.
"If Yuli Edelstein, under pressure from Netanyahu, presents the law to the ultra-Orthodox before presenting it to soldiers and reservists, this sums up the whole story of the evasion law," said opposition leader Yair Lapid.
Opposition members serving on the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee echoed Lapid's criticism, accusing Edelstein of surrendering to coalition pressure and sidestepping proper legislative procedure. They claimed the bill was being shaped in closed-door talks and would be handed to the committee as a fait accompli.
The draft legislation has been at the heart of intense coalition infighting, especially since a crisis erupted last month over disagreements on enforcement.
On June 12, Edelstein and Haredi leaders reached a compromise: the inclusion of immediate personal sanctions on draft evaders in exchange for the softening of certain financial penalties. For example, Edelstein had pushed to raise the Haredi draft quota from 70 per cent to 75 per cent, but agreed to reduce the impact on early childhood subsidies in order to avoid undermining Haredi employment.
If passed, the law will impose immediate personal sanctions on draft evaders, including denial of a driver's license, travel restrictions, and revocation of academic subsidies and affirmative action benefits in the public sector. If draft targets are not met within six months, further penalties such as the removal of dormitory and transit subsidies will kick in. After one year, partial National Insurance payments will be revoked, and after two years, daycare subsidies and housing aid will also be cut.
Despite the tough sanctions, the law will begin with modest targets: no Haredi conscripts in the first year, 5,700 in the second, and a gradual increase to 50 per cent of the eligible Haredi cohort by 2030. The proposed outline allows for a 95 per cent compliance rate to be considered full fulfilment, with the draft age set between 18 and 26.
The military began making plans to draft yeshiva students after Israel's High Court of Justice ruled in 2024 that exemptions for the Haredi community were illegal.
The army told lawmakers it faces a critical manpower shortage, needing approximately 12,000 new recruits, including 7,000 combat soldiers and seeks to recruit 4,800 Haredi men annually, a figure expected to rise over time.
Military service is compulsory for all Israeli citizens. However, Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, and the country's leading rabbis agreed to a status quo that deferred military service for Haredi men studying in yeshivot, or religious institutions. At the time, no more than several hundred men were studying in yeshivot.
However, the Orthodox community has grown significantly since Israel's founding. In January 2023, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported that Haredim are Israel's fastest-growing community and projected it would constitute 16 per cent of the population by the end of the decade. According to the Israel Democracy Institute, the number of yeshiva students exceeded 138,000 in 2021.
Netanyahu was due to depart for Washington on Sunday afternoon, where he is scheduled to meet U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday.
Trump has intensified his push for a Gaza deal. However, talks remain stalled, with Hamas demanding a permanent end to the war and Israel insisting on a temporary truce that preserves its right to resume fighting.
Netanyahu's discussions are also expected to focus on the next steps with Iran, thawing Israeli-Syrian relations, and finalising elements of a US-Israel trade agreement. (ANI/TPS)