{"id":156183,"date":"2025-11-27T19:36:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T19:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/156183\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T19:36:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T19:36:12","slug":"bismuth-presents-bill-exempting-yeshiva-students-from-idf-draft-loosening-sanctions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/156183\/","title":{"rendered":"Bismuth presents bill exempting yeshiva students from IDF draft, loosening sanctions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth released on Thursday his long-awaited revision of a government bill regulating ultra-Orthodox enlistment, paving the way for its continued advancement toward the final two readings necessary for it to become law.<\/p>\n

Bismuth\u2019s version of the legislation would continue to grant military service exemptions to full-time yeshiva students while increasing conscription among graduates of Haredi educational institutions. The release of the draft text sparked harsh criticism from the opposition \u2014 with Opposition Leader Yair Lapid dismissing it as an \u201canti-Zionist disgrace.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to the critics, Bismuth released a video in which he boasted that he had written a \u201cbalanced law\u201d that was \u201cgood for the army\u201d as well as yeshiva students.<\/p>\n

Pushing back on the widespread belief that the coalition was set on advancing the law to bring the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties back into the government, Bismuth insisted that his proposal was \u201cnot here to stabilize a coalition, it\u2019s here to stabilize the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill states that its goal is to \u201cregulate the status of full-time yeshiva students while recognizing the importance of Torah study.\u201d However, while it asserts that it aims to \u201creduce inequality in conscription for regular military service, including through the integration of members of the Haredi public into civil-security service,\u201d it also states that full-time yeshiva students who do not engage in any other vocation may be granted yearly deferments from enlistment.<\/p>\n

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For the past year, the Haredi leadership has pushed to pass a law largely keeping its constituency out of the Israel Defense Forces, after the High Court ruled that decades-long blanket exemptions from army duty traditionally afforded to full-time Haredi yeshiva students were illegal.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\tUltra-Orthodox demonstrators burn enlistment orders at a demonstration outside the Beit Lid military prison, August 14, 2025. (Tal Gal\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged between 18 and 24 are currently believed to be eligible for military service, but have not enlisted. The IDF has said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits due to the strain on standing and reserve forces caused by the war against Hamas in Gaza and other military challenges.<\/p>\n

A long-delayed bill<\/p>\n

Bismuth took over the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and responsibility for the bill in August, following the removal of his predecessor, Yuli Edelstein, whose own proposed draft was too harsh for the Haredim, causing them to bolt the government.<\/p>\n

After taking over the committee, Bismuth largely threw out Edelstein\u2019s work and started over<\/a>, indicating that his revised legislation would continue to exempt full-time yeshiva students<\/a> from IDF service for the foreseeable future, and would draft only half of the eligible members of the community not engaged in full-time Talmud study, gradually, over the next five years.<\/p>\n

However, despite Bismuth announcing in October that he would soon submit a revised draft of the bill to the committee, with the intention of bringing it to a final plenum vote in December, the legislation\u2019s progress was subsequently marked by repeated delays caused by ultra-Orthodox intransigence and internal opposition<\/a> to the bill within the coalition.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\tKnesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein delivers a statement on efforts to pass an ultra-Orthodox conscription law, July 15, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

However, things began to change last week when the United Torah Judaism party\u2019s Degel HaTorah faction announced that it supported the bill<\/a>, leading Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reportedly give Bismuth a green light<\/a> to schedule new hearings to prepare it for its second and third readings in the plenum.<\/p>\n

Three discussions on the bill are scheduled for the committee next week, Bismuth announced on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Removing oversight<\/p>\n

The bill appears to have softened or removed multiple provisions from Edelstein\u2019s previous draft, including clauses for providing oversight of yeshiva attendance, such as the implementation of fingerprint scanners in yeshivas.<\/p>\n

Students who receive deferment orders may be allowed, upon reaching the age of 20, to request a civilian security service.<\/p>\n

Striking out part of a clause from a previous version that stated that the government would recruit conscripts from among yeshiva students, the updated bill stipulates that the government will recruit them from among graduates of Haredi educational institutions, and says the recruits will perform military service or civilian security service, in accordance with annual minimal thresholds.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tIllustrative: Ultra-Orthodox students seen at the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, February 27, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg\/ Flash90)<\/p>\n

The bill lists these thresholds as 8,160 conscripts in the first year; 6,840 in the second; 7,920 in the third; 8,500 in the fourth; and \u201cno less than 50 percent of the annual enlistment cohort from graduates of Haredi educational institutions\u201d in the fifth year.<\/p>\n

After the fifth year, the defense minister will be empowered, with the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee\u2019s approval, to set an annual minimum threshold no lower than that of the fifth year.<\/p>\n

This minimum threshold will also include those performing non-military security services, although this group will be capped at 10% of the total.<\/p>\n

For the purposes of the law, Haredim will be defined as those who studied at a Haredi educational institution for at least two years between the ages of 14 and 18.<\/p>\n

Failure to meet recruitment targets will mean the withdrawal of funding for yeshiva students enjoying deferrals.<\/p>\n

Any yeshiva students who have not received an exemption and did not report for service will not be allowed to get a driver\u2019s license until the age of 23, unless allowed by an exceptions committee, and will be ineligible for academic scholarships.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tUltra-Orthodox soldiers from the Hasmonean Brigade take part in a ceremony, after completing seven months of basic and advanced training, at the Western Wall in Jerusalem\u2019s Old City on August 6, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

They will also be banned from traveling abroad until the age of 23, unless otherwise allowed by an exceptions committee, and \u201cshall not be eligible to participate in the subsidized public-housing program\u201d or receive tax credits, national insurance discounts, daycare subsidies or transit discounts.<\/p>\n

The sanctions will not apply after a yeshiva student reaches the age of exemption, which is set at 26.<\/p>\n

Should the law fail to lead to the conscription of 95% its target for three consecutive years, the defense minister will establish a committee to examine the matter in order to issue recommendations for the implementation of the law and proposals for legislative amendments.<\/p>\n

The bill further stipulates that the IDF will work to \u201cenable the preservation\u201d of Haredi recruits\u2019 lifestyle while simultaneously working \u201cto establish service tracks that are tailored to the lifestyles of graduates of Haredi educational institutions, and to expand such tracks, taking into account the minimum threshold for enlistment in each enlistment year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The IDF chief of staff will be required to report four times a year on the implementation of these efforts and create an advisory committee, some of whose members must have a yeshiva background, to deal with the issue. The Defense Ministry will also work to establish Haredi pre-military preparatory academies.<\/p>\n

The current version of the legislation is likely to face a significant challenge before the High Court, which struck down the previous law in 2017 and last year ordered the government<\/a> to begin drafting Haredi men into the IDF.<\/p>\n

The ultra-Orthodox Shas party did not respond publicly to Bismuth\u2019s announcement, although a senior party official recently told The Times of Israel that Shas had \u201csignaled a long time ago that it is in favor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tUTJ MKs Yitzhak Goldknopf and Moshe Gafni at the Knesset plenum, Jerusalem, September 29, 2025. (Oren Ben Hakoon\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

UTJ chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf, who heads the party\u2019s Hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction, said that his party\u2019s rabbinic leadership will examine the new draft before deciding on whether or not to support it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe position of the Council of Torah Sages, as conveyed to us, is that we must advance a framework that will preserve the world of Torah, without any sanctions against Torah students,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe draft proposal presented this evening will be brought before our revered Torah sages, may they live long, for their decision, and we will act solely according to their guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018An anti-Zionist disgrace\u2019<\/p>\n

Bismuth\u2019s revision sparked immediate condemnations from members of the opposition and wider anti-Netanyahu bloc.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot allow this anti-Zionist disgrace to pass. We cannot allow them to humiliate the fighters, the wounded and the dead like this,\u201d declared\u00a0 Lapid.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a law,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s pathetic politics by corrupt people and draft-dodgers at the expense of our children. It won\u2019t happen, it will not pass, it will not succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tFormer prime minister Naftali Bennett speaks during a tech conference in Ness Ziona, May 5, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett called Bismuth\u2019s proposal \u201cthe most anti-Zionist law enacted in the history of the state,\u201d arguing that it constituted \u201ca declaration of war by the government on every reservist, every IDF soldier, and the entire serving public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blue and White chairman and former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz called the bill an \u201cautoimmune disease\u201d in which the state is \u201cattacking its own security\u201d while the hawkish Yisrael Beytenu party, led by Avigdor Liberman, said that \u201cthe real right doesn\u2019t support the evasion law.\u201d<\/p>\n

For his part, Edelstein insisted that \u201cunlike the text I put forward, this proposed law does not answer the IDF\u2019s needs, in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, it is \u201canother political band-aid instead of a historic law,\u201d he added, pledging to \u201cfight until the end for a real draft law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Multiple coalition lawmakers have previously expressed opposition to the legislation as currently written, with Likud MK Moshe Saada recently calling its proposed sanctions for draft evaders toothless<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Addressing a conference of reservists earlier this month, Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel (New Hope) said that she knew of six other coalition legislators who planned on voting against the bill.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tFinance Minister and Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, November 17, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

Likud MK Dan Illouz, a vocal critic of the legislation, tweeted on Thursday evening that he was still examining Bismuth\u2019s draft but added that \u201cthe Likud must represent the serving public that elects it to the Knesset according to the party\u2019s national-liberal outlook.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich\u2019s Religious Zionism party announced that it is also currently examining Bismuth\u2019s bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur principle has been and remains: We will only vote for a law that will lead to real and rapid recruitment of Haredim into the IDF to meet security needs and ease the burden on fighters, reservists, and their families,\u201d the party said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth released on Thursday his long-awaited revision of a government…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-156183","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}