Haredi political parties have threatened to support the dissolution of ‘Israel’s’ Knesset, potentially triggering early elections, unless legislation exempting their community from mandatory military service is accelerated. The threat, reported by the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation, presents a critical challenge to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition.
The Haredi parties—Shas, with 11 seats, and United Torah Judaism, with 7 seats—are a foundational pillar of the current coalition. Their 18 combined seats are essential for the government’s majority, which holds 68 of the Knesset’s 120 seats and requires at least 61 to remain in power. The parties have previously warned they could “bring down the government” if the conscription law is not passed.
This political brinkmanship follows a landmark Supreme Court ruling on June 25, 2024, which ordered the state to draft Haredi yeshiva students and halted government subsidies to religious seminaries whose students evade service. The Haredi community, constituting roughly 13% of Israel’s population, has historically resisted conscription. Community leaders argue that full-time Torah study is their national contribution and that integration into the secular army threatens their religious identity and continuity.
In a letter conveyed to Netanyahu’s office on Monday, Haredi lawmakers explicitly threatened to withhold support for the state budget and to push for early elections if the legislative process is not hastened. This could cut short the current Knesset’s term, which is not scheduled to end until October 2026.
Parliamentary procedure adds urgency to the standoff. A bill to dissolve the Knesset was placed on the general agenda this week because a six-month moratorium expired. This moratorium was triggered after the Knesset rejected a previous dissolution bill on June 12 by a vote of 61 to 53.
During a recent meeting with United Torah Judaism members, Prime Minister Netanyahu reportedly called the prospect of early elections a “mistake.” He asserted that the conscription law must be “explained to the public” and expressed confidence that only “two or three opponents from the coalition” would ultimately block it, urging rapid completion of the legislation.
The proposed bill, currently under review by the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, is championed by committee chairman Boaz Bismuth of Netanyahu’s Likud party. It would grant annual deferments from service to full-time yeshiva students not pursuing other professions and has removed several clauses from a prior draft intended to verify student attendance. Critics from across the political spectrum argue the bill contains significant loopholes and ineffective penalties, perpetuating a decades-long system where Haredi men obtain continuous deferments until reaching the exemption age, currently 26.
Source: Agencies (edited by Al-Manar)