The Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee approved on Sunday the advancement of the contentious bill that seeks to temporarily freeze the arrests of haredi (ultra-Orthodox) draft evaders, ahead of its final required plenum readings to become law.
The approval came after the Knesset’s legal advisory team issued severe warnings about advancing the legislation pushed by the haredi parties.
The legal advisory warned in its opinion on Sunday that the legislation lacks balance and could effectively exempt haredim from IDF service, failing to advance “equality in sharing the burden.”
It added that the legislation “practically exempts" haredim from the IDF.
The Knesset’s legal advisor, Sagit Afik, also warned the panel ahead of the vote that the legislative process undertaken to advance the bill was improper.
The bill advanced in the committee by a vote of 8 lawmakers in favor and 7 against, and its approval is subject to a request for revision.
The bill stipulates that from the decided date of commencement until the end of 90 days, no arrest, investigation, or enforcement proceedings will be taken for failure to serve.
One of several haredi-backed bills
The bill is part of a series of haredi-backed bills being advanced, amid numerous reports of agreements between the haredi parties and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The coalition has been pushing a legislative blitz in the Knesset’s final week before its expected dissolution 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.
Critics argue that the bill has undergone significant changes since the version that passed its first reading years ago, following dozens of committee discussions in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that reshaped its original framework.
The Knesset legal advisor told the panel that in her view, the bill was part of “an improper legislative process."
“Out of this long and complex legislative process, one small section was taken, and everything else was deleted. In my view, this raises a claim far more serious than merely a ‘new subject,’” she said.
Afik added that even though she was told that there was a time constraint to pass the bill before the Knesset dissolution, “a lack of time cannot justify an improper legislative process.”
"If the committee considers adding sanctions and other elements from the original legislative process, this could be interpreted as maintaining a connection with the original bill,” she said.
The government has stated that arresting yeshiva students who evade military service has undermined efforts to encourage broader enlistment among haredi men; therefore, a freeze on arrests would be beneficial.
Opponents and Afik have argued that the bill is unbalanced largely because it only calls for halting the arrests of draft evaders and includes no sanctions on them.
Dr. Gilad Malach, research Fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute's Ultra-Orthodox in Israel Program, told The Jerusalem Post last month that the proposal to freeze arrests of draft evaders suffers from significant flaws and lacks balance.
Malach: Addresses issue 'in a problematic way'
"Although it is meant to address a real issue [of haredi conscription], it does so in a problematic way," Malach said.
"First, it does not include the broader enforcement tools and instead focuses only on easing measures [of arrests], without an overall framework [of sanctions]."
Malach also argued that the proposal is not a true temporary measure, despite its stated 90-day duration.
"Any law passed right before elections that is set to expire during the election period automatically receives an extension of roughly four months, since the Knesset is not functioning normally," he said.
"So the 90 days can effectively become six or seven months. It is a technical issue, but clearly political parties exploit it."
"Ultimately, the goal of the haredi parties in this context is a political achievement ahead of elections," Malach explained.
"They want to be able to say: we achieved something, we prevented arrests, we delayed the issue.
The advancement of a bill to freeze the arrests of draft evaders comes after the contentious Basic Law: Torah Study bill, which seeks to enshrine Torah Study as a fundamental value in the country’s Basic Law, advanced last week in the Knesset’s House Committee.
It is also expected to be brought to the plenum for its final second and third readings this week before the expected Knesset dissolution.
The 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 shortage. Netanyahu arrived at the plenum last month to vote in favor of the bill as it passed its first reading.
The haredi parties have 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.