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Degel HaTorah Rabbis Allow Draft Bill to Proceed to Committee With Final Vote Guidance Pending

The move restarts committee consideration, leaving passage uncertain pending coalition sign-offs plus final rabbinic guidance.

Overview

  • Degel HaTorah said Rabbis Dov Landau and Moshe Hillel Hirsch authorized MKs to present the draft law to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, with final voting instructions to follow after the full bill is submitted.
  • Likud instructed committee chair MK Boaz Bismuth not to advance deliberations until ultra-Orthodox parties give definitive approval for the proposal.
  • Agudat Israel has not authorized the measure, with party leader Yitzhak Goldknopf saying it will not back any plan that imposes sanctions or harms the status and rights of Torah students.
  • The Religious Zionist Party rejected the current outline as merely symbolic and said it would only support legislation that materially increases Haredi enlistment.
  • Internal resistance persists within Degel HaTorah, including a recording of Rabbi Meir Zvi Bergman harshly condemning the draft plan, while opposition leaders Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz criticized the development as enabling draft-dodging.