Ultra-Orthodox party bolts Netanyahu government as coalition teeters

Departure of the United Torah Judaism party leaves Netanyahu with a bare-minimum majority of 61 MKs in the Knesset, as second party hints it may leave as well.

By JNS

The United Torah Judaism Party on Monday night abandoned the coalition led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in protest against the government’s failure to pass a draft law exempting ultra-Orthodox men from military service.

The announcement came after Degel HaTorah, a faction of the United Torah Judaism Party, 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 wasn’t presented by Monday, Kan News reported.

Degel Hatorah’s sole representative in the Netanyahu government, Deputy Transportation Minister Uri Maklev, submitted his official resignation on Tuesday morning, along with Knesset Member Moshe Gafni, who stepped down as head of the Knesset Finance Committee.

Meanwhile, Yaakov Asher left his position as chairman of the Knesset Interior and Environment Protection Committee, the party announced.

The Shas 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 68-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 by July 27, when the Knesset’s summer session ends, 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, however, 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 in 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.