Gantz, Lapid push back against haredi draft exemption bill in the Knesset

Opposition MKs called the proposed haredi draft exemption bill harmful to IDF soldiers and warned of an intense parliamentary and public struggle to block its swift passage.

By ELIAV BREUER JANUARY 6, 2025 12:26

MKs Gadi Eisenkot (L) and Benny Gantz (R) seen in the Knesset plenum, in Jerusalem, December 4, 2024 (photo credit: FLASH90/CHAIM GOLDBERG)

National MKs Benny Gantz, Gadi Eisenkot, and Chili Tropper hosted a conference on Monday in the Knesset to fight the government’s intention to exempt the majority of haredi men from military service.

Gantz called the developing bill a “bluff” and refuted the claim that in the previous government, he and his colleagues were willing to give the haredim “whatever they wanted,” a claim often made by the coalition.

“We are facing days of a parliamentary and public struggle because there is a bad bill on the table, and there is an intention to pass it speedily for its second and third reading,” Gantz said.

“If the coalition thinks that they will have an automatic majority for a bill that will damage IDF soldiers – they are wrong,” Gantz said.

Opposition leader MK Yair Lapid claimed at the conference that part of the agreements between the haredim and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is that the haredim will express exaggerated outrage over the bill in an attempt to placate the bill’s opponents. A draft of the  bill, according to Lapid, “intentionally spoke about low [draft] goals, of spreading out the draft for seven years intentionally in order to discredit it, ineffective sanctions, and zero enforcement capabilities.”

OPPOSITION LEADER MK Yair Lapid addresses a meeting of his Yesh Atid party’s parliamentary faction in the Knesset. (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)

According to Lapid, “What people do not understand is that ‘Torah is their vocation’ is not just an arrangement that prevents IDF service. Over the years, it became an entire economic arrangement surrounding young haredim. Their entire physical existence depends on it. From children’s daycare to city tax discounts to national insurance. This is what the haredim are unwilling to give up.”

Other groups attended

A number of reservists and other interest groups, such as the forum of reservists’ wives, attended the conference. While the majority of the MKs at the conference were from the opposition, three coalition MKs attended as well.