The first meeting discussing the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) conscription law since MK Boaz Bismuth was appointed chairperson of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee took place on Wednesday.
Opening a heated, lengthy meeting, Bismuth said, “On one thing we agree: we want a draft law.”
“I will search for what connects us all,” he added.
The meeting served as a very initial step in determining what direction the controversial bill will take after Bismuth replaced MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud) as the committee’s chairperson.
Bismuth replaced Edelstein over the controversy surrounding the negotiations regarding the haredi law proposal, which led to the departure of the two haredi parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, from the government in July.
During the panel’s session, Bismuth told the attendees that he wanted “to listen to all the varying perspectives.”
“Up until now, I have mostly heard about what we don’t agree about,” he said. “The time has come to begin talking about what is possible. That way, we can move forward.”
Heading in a new direction
Before the meeting, Bismuth called to head in a new direction with the bill, seeking what he referred to as a “historic solution” to the haredi draft issue.
The discussion was heated as various MKs began expressing their opinions on the draft law and the work that had been done on it so far.
Brig.-Gen. Shai Tayeb, the IDF’s representative at the meeting, provided the number of people from the haredi population who were drafted in the 2024 recruitment year, which ended on June 30.
“We estimate that around 2,940 haredim met the criteria and enlisted,” Tayeb said.
He added that this number was higher than the previous year’s 1,800 recruits, but said that it was far from the military’s 4,800 mark.
Tayeb also noted that even if the goal of 4,800 new recruits was met, this would still not suffice in terms of the army’s needs.
“Unfortunately, the rate of cooperation among the [haredi] population is very low,” he said.
MK Dan Illouz (Likud) urged speedy progress on the conscription law.
“As a right-winger who believes in moves that require many soldiers, if we want to continue the war in Gaza, and if we want a massive military presence, we need many soldiers,” Illouz told the committee.
The topic of sanctions on haredi draft dodgers emerged repeatedly as well throughout the meeting. One of the IDF’s tools for combating draft dodgers pertains to its presence at Ben-Gurion Airport, where it can apprehend those who perpetually avoid their draft orders by trying to leave the country.
MK Tally Gotliv (Likud) called the sanctions against haredim attempting to avoid army service “horrific,” and blasted Edelstein’s proposal for the previous outline of the draft law, which was only released by him to the public on the day he was ousted from his position.
Outline of draft law
His outline of the law set gradual conscription goals for yeshiva students over five years, with a measured annual conscription requirement starting at 5,760 soldiers in 2025 and rising to 9,500 soldiers by the fifth year.
While Edelstein’s version of the conscription law had flaws, “it was the best one that we had so far,” the director of the Israel Democracy Institute’s Joan and Irwin Jacobs Center for Shared Society, Shlomit Ravitsky Tur-Paz, told The Jerusalem Post last week.
Reservist Nir Issachar called on Bismuth to come up with a “real conscription law.”
Shas MK Yinon Azoulay told the committee that “nothing would come out of” attempting to recruit the haredi population by force, especially without a proper draft law in place. Therefore, he added, he party was “doing everything so that there will be a draft law.”
“From our experience over the past 25 years, there are adapted tracks that allow the haredim to enlist into the IDF while maintaining their lifestyle. These are not perfect yet, but this is possible to achieve,” Azoulay continued.
The discussion in the panel also began with statements from Holocaust survivors and bereaved family members of the victims of Hamas’s October 7 massacre.
Ofir Bibas, the aunt of slain hostages Kfir and Ariel Bibas, called for the return of hostages held in Hamas captivity, saying that the government had failed them.
In a similar vein, the released hostage Yocheved Lifshitz, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz, slammed the government as well.
A meeting on reallocating millions of shekels of the state budget at the Knesset’s Finance Committee took place simultaneously.
Among the funds being discussed for reallocation were finances going toward haredi education.
MK Meirav Cohen (Yesh Atid) slammed the ongoing Finance Committee meeting, saying that all the haredi leaders care about “is getting funding.”
This week’s meetings at the Knesset wrap up the final round of committee hearings before the Knesset's upcoming two-week full pause, as it will be in recess.