Netanyahu-Haredi deal: Knesset advances controversial law to equate Torah study to military service

The Israeli Knesset passed the first reading of the “Basic Law: Torah Study” on Wednesday evening, a highly controversial bill that aims to enshrine Torah study as “a fundamental value in the State of Israel.”

Basic laws have quasi-constitutional status in Israel but, like regular laws, require three readings to become law. The vote passed with 63 to 53 votes, including four coalition lawmakers who voted against it: Dan Illouz and Yuli Edelstein (Likud), Sharon Haskel (National Right), and Moshe Solomon (Religious Zionism).

The law was brought to the vote against the background of numerous, partly violent demonstrations by ultra-Orthodox Jews against the IDF draft in the past few weeks amid the recent increase in arrests of draft dodgers.

According to media reports, the bill was advanced as part of a deal between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Haredi parties, who agreed to support coalition initiatives like the bill aiming to establish a “national” commission of inquiry into Oct. 7, and, crucially, agreements regarding the dissolution of the Knesset and the date of the elections.

In exchange, Netanyahu reportedly agreed to support a package of bills designed to prevent the arrests of draft dodgers.

The Torah Study bill has been controversial from the start for including language that explicitly equated Torah study with military service, though it was softened under heavy criticism from within the coalition.

The original read, “The State of Israel, as a Jewish state, sees supreme importance in encouraging Torah study and Torah scholars, and with regard to their rights and obligations, those who have undertaken to devote themselves to Torah study for a prolonged period shall be regarded as those who perform meaningful service to the State of Israel and the Jewish people.”

It now only states that it wants “recognition of Torah study as a fundamental value in the State of Israel in order to create scales of justice in relation to other fundamental values in the state.”

Commentators have expressed suspicion that the law's extremely vague language and the circumstances of its passage indicate that its supporters are more interested in the law's symbolism than in its implementation.

At a meeting of the Knesset Committee discussing the bill ahead of the vote, Deputy Attorney General Avital Sompolinsky slammed the text for leaving “the question of what fundamental value is sought to be enshrined … vague, both on the conceptual level and in its practical expression.”

“The Basic Law does not speak [explicitly] about the yeshiva world, or about the ultra-Orthodox sector… all that remains is a vague and general reference to Torah study as an important value that must be balanced against other, unknown fundamental values.”

From the Haredi side, the law will enable its leaders to argue to their voters that they fought tooth and nail against the draft and the arrests of draft evaders.

In exchange, Netanyahu will receive crucial support for dissolving the Knesset by mid-month. According to Channel 12 News, the prime minister is pushing for the move to prevent renegade lawmakers from defecting to the opposition and triggering a constructive vote of no confidence shortly before the elections, scheduled for late October.

In addition, Israel Hayom’s Ariel Kahana cited sources close to the prime minister who said that he views voters who are angry about the alliance with the Haredi parties as being already lost, while the Haredi parties, which have boycotted the coalition votes for months over the IDF draft legislation, could still decide to join the opposition after the elections.

“To prevent that from happening, he is paying them a ‘seriousness fee’ today,” explained Kahana.

The vote was met with withering criticism from the opposition. Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot called the law “a direct blow to our national backbone. The coalition is choosing to create a bypass route for draft evasion. Torah study is an important value in the State of Israel, but it cannot serve as a political cover for abandoning the mission of defending the state.”

Together party chairman Naftali Bennett vowed to repeal the law immediately once a new government is established: “The law will disappear, but the mark of disgrace on the miserable Knesset members who supported it will remain. The Bibi–Deri–Smotrich coalition has once again said that political interests are more important than security.”

Likud lawmaker Dan Illouz, who has been among the most vocal opponents of Haredi draft exemptions in the coalition, derided the law as the “Basic Law: Torah Desecration,” warning that “the complete submission to the dictates of the ultra-Orthodox will lead us to a crash at the ballot box… the Likud is supposed to be a Zionist party that represents a serving public that sends its children into battle and serves in the reserves.”

“This is the very definition of turning the Torah into a pickaxe to dig with—a true desecration of God's name,” charged Illouz, who, like Solomon and Edelstein, is religiously observant himself.

The Haredi Knesset Members defended the bill with ferocity, even denying its opponents’ connection to Judaism.

United Torah Judaism’s Meir Porush charged, “You, the [national-religious] knitted-kippah wearers, supposedly uphold, never give up, and cherish every grain of soil here in the Land of Israel because it was promised to us in the Torah. But when it comes to Torah study, you ask that we make do with only a few grains from the Torah. Is it too much to ask of you for a little soul-searching?”