‘Part of historic process’: Netanyahu backs revised outline of IDF haredi draft bill at Knesset
Netanyahu at Knesset: Claims that Israel’s standing has been harmed are a wave of lies • On haredi draft: ‘You want to see an evasion law? That is what you brought’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed backing for the most recent outline of the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) conscription bill when addressing a stormy Knesset 40-signature debate on Monday, in which he received extreme backlash from the opposition.
Netanyahu called the outline of the revised conscription law “the beginning of the historic process of bringing the haredim into the army.”
“The world of Torah will continue to guide us, with the merging of the haredim in the army,” he said.
Netanyahu had not yet commented on the new outline of the bill after canceling a press conference on the matter last week.
Critics of the new outline of the bill that was presented by the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairperson, MK Boaz Bismuth (Likud), argue that the outline still fails to enforce haredi conscription, stalls time, and attempts to appease the haredi parties to return to the government.
MK Naama Lazimi reacts at a 40 signatures debate, at the plenum hall of the Knesset, in Jerusalem, December 8, 2025 (credit: CHAIM GOLDBERG/FLASH90)
“You want to see an evasion law? That is what you brought,” Netanyahu said as he turned toward the opposition in the session.
‘You don’t want conscription’
“You don’t want conscription,” Netanyahu added, causing further uproar.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid’s (Yesh Atid) remarks in return slammed Netanyahu.
“I have one question for you regarding the draft evasion law: what will you say to the wounded? What will you say to them if you pass this law?” he asked the plenum.
“You are standing next to the bed of a young man who will now live his entire life without arms or legs. What will you tell him?”
“How will you explain to him that the same hand that signed his draft order, sending him to war, sending him to be wounded, is also the hand that signs off on the release of tens of thousands of healthy young people as part of a political scheme of the lowest and ugliest kind?” Lapid said.
The two haredi parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, left the government in July over disagreements surrounding the bill, which had previously been advanced by former committee chair MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud).
