Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, the spiritual leader of the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) party Shas, sent a letter on Tuesday to chairman MK Arye Deri calling on the party to support the coalition’s contentious legislation in exchange for advancing a series of haredi-backed bills.
Critics argue that the bills the haredi parties have recently been pushing for encourage draft evasion amid the IDF’s severe manpower shortage.
“There is no room for delay, and under no circumstances should the passage of the Torah Study Law be put at risk,” Yosef reportedly wrote in the letter to Deri.
The letter came amid numerous reports of agreements between the haredi parties and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as the coalition pushes through a legislative blitz ahead of the Knesset’s final week of its summer session in an effort to advance as much legislation as possible before the upcoming elections.
The Knesset is expected to go into recess after next week. The haredi parties had last month boycotted coalition voting – stalling coalition bills – when they argued that their legislation was not being advanced rapidly enough.
Yosef’s letter came after Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi sent a lengthy message to the Shas spiritual leader urging him to instruct Shas lawmakers to support the controversial communications reform bill that he has been advancing.
The communications bill seeks to impose sweeping reforms on Israel’s broadcasting sector. The haredi parties had previously said they would not support the bill, citing concerns that some of its provisions could lead to broadcasting on Shabbat.
Karhi appeals to Yosef
Karhi appealed to Yosef, asking him to direct Shas MKs to support the legislation.
Yosef responded briefly, saying that the legislation would only be approved on the condition that the ultra-Orthodox bills currently on the Knesset’s agenda were also passed.
A series of bills has recently been advanced by the haredi parties Shas and United Torah Judaism.
The Basic Law: Torah Study bill
Among the most controversial is the Basic Law: Torah Study bill, which seeks to enshrine Torah study as a fundamental value in Israel’s Basic Laws, as well as separate legislation that would temporarily freeze the arrests of haredi draft evaders.
The Basic Law: Torah Study 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, even amid the IDF’s severe manpower crisis.
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.