Clashes broke out during a Knesset House Committee debate on the Basic Law: Torah Study bill on Thursday after combat veterans confronted haredi (ultra-Orthodox) lawmakers demanding that the government address their needs and provide greater support for soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) before advancing the contentious legislation.
The group of combat veterans stood up and approached the lawmakers directly. One of the veterans, Yossi Sardi, left his seat and confronted United Torah Judaism leader MK Yitzhak Goldknopf, shouting that legislation should be passed to support IDF soldiers rather than advancing the bill.
Another combat veteran told the committee that the country's political leadership had been delaying proper support for IDF veterans and soldiers for six years.
"You've been making promises for six years; how much is too much?" he said. "We’ve paid with our blood.”
Due to the outburst, the meeting had to be stopped and went on a break before returning to continue deliberating the legislation.
Soldiers must be prioritized, Veterans tell Knesset
Earlier in the meeting, Einav Danino, the mother of Ori Danino, who was murdered in Hamas captivity, told the panel that soldiers must be prioritized, speaking on how the IDF had brought the remains of her son back to her from Gaza.
"My Ori was murdered after 11 months in captivity, and I live with that pain thanks to the soldiers who brought him back to me, and they carry that burden with them. I would never have gotten Ori back without them,” she said.
The House Committee had convened to hear revisions on the contentious bill that seeks to enshrine Torah study as a fundamental value in the country’s Basic Law, ahead of its final second and third readings.
The bill is part of a proposal that critics argue encourages draft evasion and changes the status of yeshiva students who do not serve, enabling them to continue receiving state benefits.
The revisions came after the Knesset legal adviser, Sagit Afik, warned this week that the legislation, in its current wording, could provide haredim who evade military service with benefits, such as scholarships for academic aid, that are similar to those available to IDF reservists.
Following the legal warnings, MK Moshe Gafni, leader of the haredi Degel HaTorah faction, demanded on Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu advance the bill unchanged.
Ganfi's demand threatened to stall the bill, which the haredi parties – Shas and United Torah Judaism – have been pushing for, causing tensions in Netanyahu’s coalition ahead of the Knesset’s expected last week to advance legislation.
Coalition whip Ofir Katz (Likud), who chairs the House Committee where the legislation is being advanced, said that lawmakers were able to submit reservations about the bill.
His remarks raised the possibility that disagreements over the bill could prevent it from advancing.
The bill is part of a series of haredi-backed bills being advanced, amid numerous reports of agreements between the haredi parties and Netanyahu.
The coalition has been pushing a legislative blitz ahead of the Knesset’s final week of its summer session to advance as much legislation as possible before the upcoming elections.
The haredi parties boycotted coalition voting last month – stalling coalition bills – arguing that their legislation was not being advanced quickly enough.
Separate legislation would temporarily freeze arrests of haredi draft evaders
Among the most controversial haredi-backed legislation is the Basic Law: Torah Study bill, as well as separate legislation that would temporarily freeze the arrests of haredi draft evaders.
The bill to freeze such arrests will continue to be debated in the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Thursday after a week of marathon meetings on the matter.
The Basic Law: Torah study bill proposal emphasizes that Torah study is “a fundamental value in the heritage of the Jewish people and in the State of Israel.”
It proposes that the country recognize “Torah study as a fundamental value in the State of Israel in order to create a balance of justice in relation to other fundamental values in the state.”
The existing wording, enshrined in the country’s Basic Law, is expected to facilitate the granting of benefits and rights to haredi men who evade service.
There had also previously been contentious wording in the bill’s proposal that equated those who study Torah with those who serve in the IDF. This comparison has since been removed from the new draft of the legislation.
Critics argue that the legislation could implicitly allow the comparison despite the change in wording. Lawmakers in Netanyahu’s coalition have publicly opposed the legislation and voted against it.
Netanyahu arrived at the plenum last week to vote in favor of the legislation when it passed its first reading.
The haredi parties have continuously encouraged the coalition to advance legislation that would not increase haredi enlistment. The IDF has repeatedly warned of an urgent manpower shortage after more than two years of war.
In April, the High Court of Justice ordered that the state take concrete steps to revoke key financial benefits from draft evaders and to move toward criminal enforcement against haredi men who evade military service.
In March, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir said the IDF could soon collapse if no solution was found for the manpower shortage.