Over the past week, various briefings have circulated about the disagreements between the Haredi parties and the Knesset's legal advisers regarding the draft exemption law, but the details had not been clearly published. Israel Hayom has learned of the gaps from those who were present in the discussions and is now revealing them.
A permanent law instead of a temporary one, and a demand that 10% of those counted under the draft exemption targets enlist while the remaining 90% continue studying in yeshivas. These are the core disagreements between the legal adviser to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Miri Frenkel-Shor, and the Haredi factions. Last week, a meeting was held between the committee's legal adviser and the Knesset's chief legal adviser, Sagit Afik. Several differing and even contradictory briefings emerged from that meeting, but the real gaps had not been presented to the public.
While the Haredi parties are seeking to entrench a situation in which most of those eligible for conscription under the targets set by law continue studying or are registered in yeshivas and do not enlist, with only a minority joining the army, the Knesset's legal advisers insist on a temporary law. Their aim is to test how it works in practice, but above all to ensure that more Haredi men enlist and to meet the requirement of equality with other segments of Israeli society who do serve.
The significance of what is being revealed here is that Haredi demand goes far beyond softening personal and institutional sanctions, and far beyond the question of effective oversight of Haredi men who are not studying in yeshivas and who, under the law, are supposed to enlist.
When we approached the Haredi parties for comment, only Shas provided an official response, saying: "We do not address the details of the law." The Degel HaTorah faction and the Hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction did not issue official responses, but senior sources within the parties spoke with us and explained their positions. In Degel HaTorah, a senior source said that work on the draft law is currently underway and that the faction is expected to vote in favor of the state budget in its second and third readings. Regarding the meeting with the Knesset's legal advisers, the same source said: "There was a meeting with Miri and Sagit. It was a good meeting, and it was agreed that there would be another meeting in the coming days."
Agudat Yisrael continues to take a more combative line. A senior source in the faction stated unequivocally: "Anyone who studies Torah cannot be subjected to sanctions." This stance aligns with what was published Sunday morning in the faction's newspaper, Hamodia, which said that "the draft law includes aggressive institutional and personal sanctions that were not presented to the public." However, the real gaps between the sides were not laid out in the paper.
