{"id":531741,"date":"2026-07-08T19:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T19:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/531741\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T19:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T19:30:10","slug":"gafni-pushes-benjamin-netanyahu-to-keep-torah-study-bill-unchanged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/531741\/","title":{"rendered":"Gafni pushes Benjamin Netanyahu to keep Torah study bill unchanged"},"content":{"rendered":"

MK Moshe Gafni<\/a>, leader of the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Degel HaTorah faction, demanded on Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu advance the contentious Basic Law: Torah Study bill unchanged, despite legal warnings that its current wording could provide haredim who evade military service with benefits similar to those available to IDF reservists.<\/p>\n

The demand could stall the legislation, which the haredi parties \u2013 Shas and United Torah Judaism \u2013 have been pushing for, causing tensions in Netanyahu\u2019s coalition ahead of the Knesset\u2019s expected last week to advance legislation.<\/p>\n

Gafni\u2019s demand came after Knesset legal adviser Sagit Afik<\/a> warned against the current wording of the legislation.<\/p>\n

The haredi faction leader\u2019s spokesperson confirmed to The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that Gafni had demanded that Netanyahu make no changes to the legislation\u2019s wording.<\/p>\n

Legal adviser warns bill could grant benefits to draft evaders<\/p>\n

Afik\u2019s warning came as the legislation was being debated in the Knesset\u2019s House Committee ahead of its final second and third readings that are required to pass it into law.<\/p>\n

\"DegelDegel Hatorah leader MK Moshe Gafni at Knesset House Committee debating Basic Law: Torah Study, Sunday June 28, 2026. (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)<\/p>\n

Afik said that the legislation, in its current form, could allow Torah students to receive the same academic aid benefits as reservists, among other state benefits.<\/p>\n

She told the panel that it was necessary to revise the legislation\u2019s outline so that the wording was revised to be \u201cdeclarative in nature,\u201d which has led to objections from the haredi parties.<\/p>\n

Afik also told the House Committee on Wednesday that there were numerous sections of ambiguity in the legislation and many areas where its practical interpretation remains unclear.<\/p>\n

Coalition whip Ofir Katz (Likud)<\/a>, who chairs the Knesset\u2019s House Committee where the legislation is being advanced, said that lawmakers were able to submit reservations about the legislation at the end of the discussion.<\/p>\n

He added that the Likud Party was also considering filing reservations ahead of the expected committee vote on the bill on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Katz\u2019s remarks raised the possibility that disagreements over the bill could prevent it from advancing.<\/p>\n

Coalition advances additional haredi-backed legislation<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Knesset<\/a> Committee on Public Projects approved advancing another haredi-backed kashrut bill ahead of its final second and third readings.<\/p>\n

The legislation seeks to cancel the 2021 kashrut reform in a move that could prevent Israel\u2019s official kashrut certification market from opening to broader competition, granting control to the Chief Rabbinate.<\/p>\n

The advancement of the series of haredi-backed legislation comes amid numerous reports of agreements between the haredi parties and Netanyahu, as the coalition has been pushing through a legislative blitz ahead of the Knesset\u2019s final week of its summer session in an effort to advance as much legislation as possible before the upcoming elections.<\/p>\n

The Knesset is expected to go into recess after next week. The haredi parties had last month boycotted coalition voting \u2013 stalling coalition bills \u2013 when they argued that their legislation was not being advanced rapidly enough.<\/p>\n

Basic Law proposal remains highly contentious<\/p>\n

Among the most controversial haredi-backed legislation is the Basic Law: Torah Study bill, as well as separate legislation that would temporarily freeze the arrests of haredi draft evaders.<\/p>\n

The bill to freeze such arrests continued to be debated in the Knesset\u2019s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The Basic Law: Torah Study bill is part of a proposal that critics argue encourages draft evasion and changes the status of yeshiva students who do not serve, enabling them to continue receiving state benefits, even amid the IDF\u2019s severe manpower crisis.<\/p>\n

The proposal emphasizes that Torah study is \u201ca fundamental value in the heritage of the Jewish people and in the State of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

It proposes that the country recognize \u201cTorah study as a fundamental value in the State of Israel in order to create a balance of justice in relation to other fundamental values in the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

The existing wording, enshrined in the country\u2019s Basic Law, is expected to facilitate the granting of benefits and rights to haredi men who evade service.<\/p>\n

There had also previously been contentious wording in the bill\u2019s proposal that equated those who study Torah with those who serve in the IDF. This comparison has since been removed from the legislation\u2019s new draft.<\/p>\n

Critics argue that the legislation could implicitly allow the comparison despite the change in wording. Lawmakers in Netanyahu\u2019s coalition have publicly opposed the legislation and voted against it.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu arrived at the plenum last week to vote in favor of the legislation when it passed its first reading.<\/p>\n

The haredi parties have continuously encouraged the coalition to advance legislation that would not increase haredi enlistment. The IDF has repeatedly warned of an urgent manpower shortage after more than two years of war.<\/p>\n

High Court, IDF warn of consequences<\/p>\n

In April, the High Court of Justice ordered that the state take concrete steps to revoke key financial benefits from draft evaders and to move toward criminal enforcement against haredi men who evade military service.<\/p>\n

In March, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir said the IDF could soon collapse if no solution was found for the manpower shortage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MK Moshe Gafni, leader of the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Degel HaTorah faction, demanded on Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,1031,954,14406,21141,85735,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-531741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-idf","tag-israeli-politics","tag-knesset","tag-likud","tag-moshe-gafni","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531741","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=531741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}