Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called on the haredi parties on Wednesday not to condition their support for the 2025 national budget on the passage of the haredi IDF draft bill, which would exempt over half of eligible haredim from IDF service.
In his remarks, which were given in the Knesset plenum in Jerusalem, Smotrich argued that the haredi parties should support the budget regardless – and then could topple the government over the draft bill, if they wished.
The remarks came a day after Shas chairman MK Aryeh Deri threatened that the haredi parties will topple the government if the haredi draft bill does not pass into law “within two months”.
According to the law, the national budget must pass prior to March 31, and if not the government falls automatically. The proximity of Deri’s deadline to the budget deadline was a clear indication that the parties will not support the budget if the haredi draft bill does not pass first.
Another haredi party leader, MK Moshe Gafni, serves as chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee, which is largely responsible for approving the national budget. The weeks prior to the approval of an annual budget usually involve intense activity in the committee, but the committee did not hold any debates this week on the budget, and has held very few since the 2025 budget passed its first reading in the Knesset plenum on December 17.
Warning sign
Opposition MKs have argued that Gafni was intentionally slowing down the budget as a warning sign that it will not pass if the haredi draft bill does not pass first.
Meanwhile, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud) announced this week that the committee will speed up its preparation of the haredi draft bill, and hold two meetings a week from here on out. However, in a committee meeting on Monday it became clear that the government, represented by Government Secretary Adv. Yossi Fuchs, intended to pass a law that is highly unlikely to pass constitutional review.
According to Fuchs, the government’s aim is to reach in seven years a number of draftees equal to half of the 18-year-old haredi cohort. However, Fuchs did not explain why the remaining half would not be drafted, and Deputy Attorney-General Gil Limon pointed out that there had to be a legal basis for this fundamental inequality.
In addition, Fuchs said that the government intended to apply the quota requirement to the haredi “pool” of candidates as a whole, i.e. haredi men between the ages of 18 and 26, such that if the quota is not reached, the entire “pool” is sanctioned, and if it is reached, than the entire “pool” is exempt from sanctions.
Limon and others pointed out that this served as a form of collective punishment and was therefore highly unlikely to pass a challenge in the High Court.