Yisrael Eichler from the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Agudat Yisrael faction is expected to be appointed as deputy communications minister as part of agreements to advance the passage of the controversial haredi draft bill.
Appointing Eichler to the new position will require a budget of NIS 3.5 million, which would be allocated from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, states the government proposal, released on Thursday.
The move will reportedly allow former lawmaker Yitzhak Pindrus, from the Degel Hatorah faction, to return to the Knesset. Pindrus would then be expected to vote in favor of the haredi draft bill, taking Eichler’s place.
Agudat Yisrael and Degel Hatorah are both factions within the United Torah Judaism Party, which resigned from the government and the coalition in July after the fallout in negotiations over a previous version of the controversial conscription bill.
The move is seen to be part of understandings reached between the factions regarding the internal division of power within the UTJ party.
Knesset advances conscription bill
Pindrus had previously been removed from UTJ’s list under the Norwegian Law after the party’s ministers resigned in July.
Meanwhile, the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee conducted marathon meetings to advance the revised version of the conscription bill throughout Thursday.
Critics of the bill argue that the revised outline fails to enforce haredi conscription and serves primarily as a political solution to allow for the return of UTJ and the Sephardic haredi Shas Party to the government.
This comes at an especially critical time for the government, ahead of the Knesset’s vote on the 2026 state budget. If the state budget is not approved by the end of March, at the close of the fiscal year, the Knesset will automatically dissolve, and elections will be called.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) slammed the government for Eichler’s expected appointment.
“Netanyahu is promoting draft evasion from the IDF together with Knesset members who do not believe in the existence of the State of Israel,” said Lapid.
“The appointment of Eichler as a deputy minister, someone who has previously said that Israel is an ‘enemy state,’ that it is a historic national disaster, and that it is a ‘Hebrew ghetto,’ solely in order to try to pass the draft-evasion law, is a disgrace that cannot be erased.”
The Yesh Atid Party also addressed reports that Eichler’s role would cost NIS 3.5m.
“In the most recent budget, the government cut NIS 3.3m. from the Holocaust Survivors’ Rights Authority. The cost of the fabricated office of a draft-evading deputy minister who called Israel an ‘enemy state’: NIS 3.5m.,” it stated.