Some reports indicated that politicians were encouraging yeshiva students to open businesses on paper in order to continue being eligible for subsidized state care.
"We will not agree to any further delay in passing the budget. The budget will not be held hostage by the legislation of the [haredi] conscription law,” Smotrich said.
While preparation of the haredi draft bill sped up in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in recent weeks, it is still unlikely to pass into law by March 3.
For those hoping that shared national challenges might bridge the secular-religious divide, Rabbi Landau’s words are deeply discouraging.
“We’re not fighting for freedom. We’re fighting against terror," Rivlin said.
Recordings published in Ynet last week revealed that Agudat Yisrael party officials were instructing yeshiva students to open fictitious small businesses.
Abandoning it risks alienating their base, yet standing firm could bring down the government best positioned to achieve their ideological vision under Trump’s presidency.
This marks the first arrest of an ultra-Orthodox deserter since the exemption status of Haredim was revoked in July 2024, and 3000 draft orders were sent out.
Readers of The Jerusalem Post have their say.
Last month, the military announced that legal action was underway against draft candidates from the haredi community who failed to report for enlistment.
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