Eleven Weeks to the Election, and the Law Is Already in Court

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not attend the vote on the Basic Law: Torah Study at all. Two days later he showed up for the second bill, took his seat, then left before lawmakers cast their votes. Opposition members shouted "shame" and "go" as he walked out.

Both bills passed that week, both years in the making, both centered on military service for ultra-Orthodox men. The first enshrines Torah study as a fundamental value in Israel's Basic Law, the constitutional layer above ordinary legislation. It cleared 63-52. The second freezes arrests and prosecutions of Haredi men who have not reported for service, shielding them until November 30 while a broader draft law stays stuck in negotiation. It passed 58-54.

Israel's military says it needs 12,000 new recruits after nearly three years of fighting since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack. About 72,000 Haredi men between 18 and 24 are currently eligible for service and have not enlisted. Both bills moved through the Knesset in the same week as those numbers, and the Knesset dissolved days later ahead of the October 27 election.

Netanyahu's coalition depends on Shas and United Torah Judaism, and both parties have made draft exemptions a condition of their support. Losing that support would cost him his majority months before voters go to the polls.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir wrote to Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz, and Knesset defense committee chairman Boaz Bismuth calling the arrest-freeze bill "inconceivable" and "clearly and unequivocally inconsistent with the IDF's needs," warning it would hand the military the job of certifying who counts as a yeshiva student and remove any incentive to report for duty. The bill passed regardless.

Inside the chamber, the Knesset's legal adviser had instructed Haredi lawmakers to disclose whether any relatives could personally benefit from the law. MK Elazar Stern alleged that Aryeh Deri had grandchildren who were draft evaders before his microphone was cut off by the deputy speaker. Shas and UTJ lawmakers later submitted a joint statement acknowledging only that some of their own children and grandchildren "may be affected" by the bill, without confirming or denying Stern's claim. Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel resigned within hours of the vote, telling reporters the law "harms those who serve and Israel's security." Opposition parties and NGOs filed petitions the same day asking the High Court to strike it down.

The court moved fast. The next morning, Justice Ofer Grosskopf issued a provisional order suspending the law before it could take effect, then named an expanded nine-justice panel to hear the case, including all five justices who wrote the court's 2024 and 2026 rulings requiring the state to draft yeshiva students. A hearing is set for July 28. Deri accused the court of "judicial activism run amok."

More than 70 mayors and regional council leaders filed a separate petition of their own, arguing that Torah study and military service are not mutually exclusive and that residents in their own jurisdictions do both.

Ultra-Orthodox leaders reject that argument. Deri, welcoming the Basic Law's passage, said it marked the first time the state had formally recognized the value of Torah study and those who pursue it. A Channel 12 poll taken during the same week found 66 percent of Israelis oppose the Torah Study law, and 61 percent said they would rather see the next government exclude ultra-Orthodox parties from the coalition altogether.

Washington has said nothing publicly about the dispute, keeping its attention on Gaza's ceasefire implementation and the broader regional peace process.

@Santitos

@salinasmariasantos

Copyright © 2026 Maria Santos Salinas for FRONTeras.

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