Any agreement regarding a bill to regulate the issue of haredi (ultra-Orthodox) service in the IDF must pass through the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and include “changes and adaptations,” committee chairman MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud) said during a committee meeting on Monday morning.

“There are all kinds of talk about agreements behind the committee’s back. There is no such thing as going behind the back of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee,” Edelstein said.

Edelstein’s comments came a day after a meeting of the leaders of the coalition’s parties, in which they discussed the possible removal of Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara from her position and the possibility of resuming a bill to alter the makeup of the Judicial Selection Committee.

According to a source, the haredi party leaders have threatened not to support either move until a haredi draft bill, which is acceptable to them, advances.

Katz addresses issue

Asked about the matter in the committee meeting on Monday, Defense Minister Yisrael Katz said he was researching the issue and did not yet have a definitive plan of action.
Haredi men dressed in traditional ultra-Orthodox garb stand behind a group of religious IDF soldiers (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Haredi men dressed in traditional ultra-Orthodox garb stand behind a group of religious IDF soldiers (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Katz also said that Israel and Hamas were “closer than ever” to a deal to free hostages, according to a source.
The decades-long legal exemption of military-aged haredi men permanently expired in June. According to the law, all haredi men who reach the age of 18 must enlist for IDF service like the rest of Israel’s Jewish citizens.
However, the IDF has been slow to pick up the pace of sending draft orders to haredi men. In addition, out of the thousands of orders sent out, very few respected the orders and showed up for service.
The haredi party leaders have attempted to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a bill proposal that will leave a majority of haredim exempt from IDF service.
However, Edelstein and a number of other members of the coalition have said they will not support a bill that did not answer the manpower needs of the IDF.
In addition, the government faces a legal barrier, as any bill must meet constitutional standards of equality. Two previous haredi draft bills were ruled unconstitutional since they violated a ruling from 1998 that the defense minister could not exempt an entire group from IDF service.