Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman MK Boaz Bismuth announced that the controversial haredi (ultra-Orthodox) conscription bill is set to be advanced again amid the IDF manpower shortage after progress on the bill was halted during the war.
Bismuth said the decision was made in coordination with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and at the request of IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, claiming it would address manpower shortages, during remarks in the Knesset plenum on Monday.
Bismuth’s announcement came after Zamir warned during a security cabinet meeting last Wednesday that the IDF was nearing its breaking point and could soon collapse if there was no solution.
The IDF has repeatedly warned of a manpower shortage, particularly after more than two years of war. Military sources told The Jerusalem Post that even in peacetime, Israel would require more troops across multiple fronts, including Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank.
There has been no law enacted to increase haredi conscription into the army, which contributes significantly to the manpower shortage. Bismuth said that the draft bill would be advanced as part of “a comprehensive legislative initiative consisting of three laws.”
He said the package would include a law to extend mandatory military service, a conscription law, and a reserve duty law. Prior to Operation Roaring Lion, the government had been rapidly advancing the controversial draft bill.
Critics argue the bill was primarily a political measure for Netanyahu to appease haredi parties – Shas and United Torah Judaism – in his coalition and would not increase enlistment.
At the start of Operation Roaring Lion, Netanyahu announced that the draft bill would be “set aside” for the sake of national unity and would not be advanced during wartime.
Israeli politicians criticize bill's push amid war
Coalition and opposition politicians sharply criticized the renewed push to advance the bill, warning that it would increase the burden on current soldiers without ensuring broader enlistment.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel stated after Bismuth’s announcement that “the law currently on the Knesset table will not enlist the haredim. It’s a maneuver to buy time until the next Knesset, when they will demand a sweeping exemption from military service.”
She vowed to continue ensuring the bill does not pass.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) said the plan would extend mandatory service and increase reserve duty days while allowing haredim to continue avoiding military service.
“We will not let this pass,” Lapid said. “Yesh Atid has stopped the evasion law in all previous attempts, and we will stop it this time as well.”
“We will not allow Bismuth and Netanyahu to turn the secular, traditional, and religious public into servants of those who evade service,” he added.
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, a leading challenger to Netanyahu in the upcoming elections, also criticized the move, telling the Post on Tuesday it was “a despicable plan” that increases the burden on reservists without enforcing conscription.
The renewed push for the draft bill comes shortly after the passage of the 2026 state budget on Monday, which included hundreds of millions of shekels in funding for haredi institutions.
Haredi parties had also threatened to oppose the budget in its first reading unless concessions were made regarding the draft legislation, until the budget ultimately passed its first hurdle in January.
Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.