Senior officials in Israel’s ultra-Orthodox parties have accused Miri Frenkel-Shor, the legal adviser to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, of blocking progress on the long-delayed conscription bill, Maariv reported on Friday.
The criticism came amid continued delays in advancing legislation meant to regulate the enlistment of haredi men, with ultra-Orthodox sources claiming the holdup stems from Frenkel-Shor’s demands rather than coalition politics.
According to senior haredi party figures quoted by Maariv, some of Frenkel-Shor’s conditions are not purely legal in nature but reflect “an ideological approach.” They pointed to her reported insistence on maintaining ongoing sanctions for individuals who do not enlist, even if the haredi public meets the law’s recruitment targets.
“Frenkel-Shor’s demands in the closed-door talks are tougher than the demands Yuli Edelstein presented. The sense is that Frenkel-Shor simply does not want this law to pass, and there is nothing legal about it,” a senior official in the ultra-Orthodox parties said.
Haredi Knesset members say she has 'forgotten her role'
“We did not want to pass a law ‘over the head’ of the Knesset’s legal counsel, but it is on the table. If the Knesset’s legal counsel decides to start acting politically, like the Attorney-General’s office, we will have to start treating the two bodies the same way,” another source added.
Another official argued that the committee’s legal adviser should provide only constitutional and legal guidance, not substitute for lawmakers’ discretion. The official cited as an example the reported view that sanctions should remain on Torah students who do not enlist even when targets are met, describing that rationale as “ethical” rather than “legal.”
“Value judgments are for the Knesset, not for a committee legal adviser, however important she may be, who has simply forgotten her role.”