Jerusalem, 19 November, 2025 (TPS-IL) — A faction within one of the Orthodox parties in Israel’s governing coalition said on Wednesday it has received approval from senior rabbis to advance a controversial government bill regulating Haredi conscription.
A spokesman for Rabbi Dov Lando, spiritual leader of the Degel HaTorah faction of the United Torah Judaism party, said the guidance reflected “practical considerations for saving the world of Torah.” He explained, “In the end, the great rabbis have two main considerations. The primary consideration is that those who want to learn can continue to study, and the second is that those who enlist will have a suitable framework in the IDF. They will do what is needed to safeguard yeshiva students.”
Legislation currently in the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee seeks to formalize Orthodox community exemptions from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth has indicated that the revised draft is expected to continue exempting full-time yeshiva students from military service for the foreseeable future.
However, Degel HaTorah’s support does not guarantee the bill’s passage. UTJ’s other faction, Agudat Yisrael, remains opposed.
A spokesman for Agudat Yisrael chairman Rabbi Yitzhak Goldknopf said, “The chairman… has not yet received the draft of the Conscription Law… and therefore it has not yet been brought before the Council of Torah Sages. To make it absolutely clear: Agudat Yisrael will not support any bill that includes sanctions or any harm to the status and rights of Torah students in the Land of Israel, as has been the practice until now.”
Shas, the coalition’s other Orthodox party, is reportedly inclined to support the bill but has not formally endorsed it.
The Movement for Quality Government, an Israeli watchdog organization, criticized Degel HaTorah’s announcement and signaled it could take legal action.
“The High Court has already unanimously ruled… that there is no legal basis for avoiding the enlistment of yeshiva students. Any attempt to circumvent the court ruling and approve… the mass exemption of tens of thousands of Haredi youth… is a serious violation of the rule of law and equality,” the group said. “We will continue the legal battle in the High Court and will not allow the government to breach the court’s rulings and harm national security.”
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid slammed the rabbis’ approval of the bill, calling it a “full-blown draft evasion law.” He told the Knesset, “They would not have approved it unless they knew it was outright draft evasion. Tens of thousands of healthy young people are being released from the IDF… It is simply an erosion of the foundations of Zionism.”
The military began making plans to draft yeshiva students after israel’s high Court of Justice ruled in 2024 that exemptions for the Haredi community were illegal.
Haredi Orthodox men in Israel are generally exempt from mandatory military service if they study full-time in religious seminaries, known as yeshivot. The issue has long divided Israeli society and remains politically sensitive, especially during wartime. Shas and UTJ insist on preserving these exemptions as a matter of religious principle and community identity.
However, public opposition has grown. After two years of war, many Israelis view the policy as unequal.
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.
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