Jerusalem, 14 May, 2025 (TPS-IL) — For the second week in a row, Israel’s coalition government pulled all its legislative proposals from the Knesset plenum due to an ongoing boycott by the Orthodox (haredi) parties angered by the government’s delay in advancing legislation that would formalize the exemption of yeshiva students from mandatory military service.
The Knesset’s Wednesday session — typically reserved for preliminary readings of private members’ bills — went ahead without any coalition proposals. As a result, no coalition-led legislation advanced, while the opposition kept its bills on the table. This forced coalition MKs to be in the plenum to oppose the opposition bills.
At the heart of the crisis is a law that would codify the exemption of yeshiva students from military service. The haredi factions have demanded substantial progress on the legislation before they resume voting for any coalition-backed initiatives. A source from one of the haredi parties said the coalition must show “significant advancement” on the law.
Last week’s canceled legislation included a controversial proposal to split the role of the government’s legal advisor. That same day, following a directive by military Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir to expand draft orders to the haredi community, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a meeting with haredi party leaders. Though described as “positive,” the talks failed to break the deadlock.
Tensions further flared as the Israel Defense Forces launched enforcement operations targeting draft deserters, citing urgent manpower shortages due to ongoing military operations. Military Police are reportedly preparing for a broader arrest operation against haredi men who ignored draft orders. The IDF insists that enforcement will be carried out across all sectors, not just among the haredim.
In a closed-door meeting of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Netanyahu tried to strike a balance, stating, “10,500 [Haredim] within two years is the number that the army knows how to absorb, and we will also impose heavy personal and institutional sanctions.” But Brig. Gen. Shai Taib, head of the IDF’s Manpower Planning Division, told lawmakers that the army requires 12,000 soldiers for the regular force alone — 7,000 of them combat troops — due to attrition among reservists, many of whom have been called up six or seven times since the war began.
Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein has signaled he will propose a version of the draft law with higher-than-expected quotas for haredi conscription. That move, however, is expected to face fierce resistance from haredi politicians.
Since July 2024, only 319 out of 18,915 ultra-Orthodox men who received initial draft notices have enlisted in the IDF, according to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara. In response, authorities have issued immediate call-up orders to 2,521 who ignored repeated summons, requiring them to report to induction centers within 48 hours or face classification as draft evaders. So far, 964 have been officially declared as such. Baharav-Miara’s office said that this number is expected to grow significantly in the coming weeks.
The military began making plans to draft yeshiva students after Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled in June that exemptions for the Haredi community were illegal.
Military service is compulsory for all Israeli citizens. However, Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, and the country’s leading rabbis agreed to a status quo that deferred military service for Haredi men studying in yeshivot, or religious institutions. At the time, no more than several hundred men were studying in yeshivot.
However, the Orthodox community has grown significantly since Israel’s founding. In January 2023, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported that Haredim are Israel’s fastest-growing community and projected it would constitute 16% of the population by the end of the decade. According to the Israel Democracy Institute, the number of yeshiva students exceeded 138,000 in 2021.
