Aryeh Deri, the head of Shas, said that the Haredi parties would try to legislate the draft law from outside the government.

By JNS staff

The Haredi parties appear set to abandon the coalition led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in protest of the government’s failure to pass a draft law exempting ultra-Orthodox men from the army. However, they say they will continue to bolster the government while sitting outside it.

The first to depart will be Degel HaTorah, a faction of the United Torah Judaism party. It received a letter on Monday from members of the Council of Torah Sages, a rabbinical policymaking body, instructing it to resign immediately from the coalition if a draft law isn’t presented by Monday, Kan News reported.

United Torah Judaism includes two factions: Degel HaTorah and Agudat Israel. Agudat Israel will presumably follow at some point later this week.

Shas, another Haredi party, has signaled its intention to leave the coalition next week.

United Torah Judaism and Shas hold a total of 18 Knesset seats in the 67-seat coalition.

Aryeh Deri, the head of Shas, said that the Haredi parties would try to legislate the draft law from outside the government. Their goal is to see the law passed on July 27, before the end of the Knesset’s summer session, Kan News wrote.

These parties reportedly relaxed their demands for a draft law in June as their leaders were informed of the impending attack on Iran.

Following the attack, the Haredim had expected a draft bill to be presented. When it was not, they returned to threatening the coalition’s stability.

A senior official in one of the ultra-Orthodox parties told Kan last week: “Everything that was promised to us on the eve of the attack in Iran has been canceled. We have lost faith in them.”

The Haredi community faces widespread anger from Israeli society for opposing sending its young men to serve in the army.

Israel’s Supreme Court ruled last year, following the expiration of a previous exemption law in 2023, that the state must begin drafting Haredi men into the Israel Defense Forces.

This year, the IDF began initiating criminal proceedings against Haredi draft candidates who fail to report for enlistment.