The controversial haredi (ultra-Orthodox) conscription bill has advanced and will soon undergo its first vote in the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the committee's chairperson, MK Boaz Bismuth (Likud), announced on Tuesday.
Bismuth’s announcement marks significant progress on the legislation. Critics of the draft bill outline argue that the current version fails to enforce haredi conscription and aims to appease the haredi parties in the Knesset. The IDF has repeatedly said it is in urgent need of more manpower, especially after over two years of war.
“I am excited to announce that the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee has completed the reading of all the clauses of the conscription law,” Bismuth said at the end of a full day of meetings on the bill.
“We are reaching the finish line, and soon we will vote on the law in the committee ahead of second and third readings [in the plenum],” he said.
Bismuth’s office later confirmed that he canceled the full day of committee meetings originally scheduled for Thursday on the bill.
“There is no longer a need to hold an additional discussion at this stage,” the office stated.
The legal drafting stage
The bill will now move to the legal drafting stage. Once completed, lawmakers will be able to submit reservations, after which the committee will proceed to a vote, Bismuth said. “What dragged on for years and repeatedly got stuck in endless discussions moved forward during my tenure because there was a clear goal: a law,” he added.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to participate in a closed-door Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee discussion next week.
Bismuth assumed the role of Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chair in July, replacing MK Yuli Edelstein.
Edelstein was removed after the fallout over negotiations surrounding his version of the haredi draft bill, a dispute that ultimately led haredi parties Shas and United Torah Judaism to exit the government. Bismuth’s announcement on progress on the bill came one day before the Knesset was scheduled to vote on the 2026 state budget in its first reading, amid a growing coalition crisis tied to the conscription legislation.
Haredi parties had threatened to oppose the budget unless progress was made on the bill. By law, if the state budget is not approved in all three readings by the end of March, when the fiscal year closes, the Knesset will automatically dissolve, and elections will be called.
If the haredi parties vote in favor of the budget’s first reading, contradicting their earlier threats, it would grant the government additional time to finalize the haredi draft legislation before the budget’s final readings in March.