Israeli Haredi Parties Plan to Resign and Bring Down Netanyahu's Government This Week

SadaNews - The Haredi parties intend to resign from the coalition and the government this week if a draft law exempting Haredim from serving in the Israeli army is not presented. Moreover, it has been reported that the "Shas" party will hold an "emergency meeting" at 3:00 PM in its offices in occupied Jerusalem.

The Haaretz website quoted unnamed sources within the Haredi parties as saying that "marathon sessions are being held in the last hours at the homes of Haredi leaders regarding the resignation".

They added that "the head of the 'Shas' party, Aryeh Deri, is leading this move, but he is keen to avoid being portrayed as responsible for bringing down the right-wing government. Thus, he is working to have the 'United Torah Judaism' party lead the initiative, which 'Shas' will join later".

There is a prevailing belief among the Haredi parties that proposing a law to dissolve the Knesset is currently impossible from a legal and practical standpoint, while they see that their only remaining option is to resign from the government.

In this context, sources close to Rabbi Dov Landau, a leader in the Lithuanian Haredi community, stated that he issued instructions to Knesset members from the "Degel HaTorah" party, which is part of the "United Torah Judaism" party, to resign from the government today. Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch, who leads the party alongside him, also joined this call, saying, "In coordination with senior rabbis, it was decided to wait a few more hours this evening before announcing matters, in order to provide a final opportunity for a compromise".

Last week, sources in the Haredi parties mentioned that the chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Yuli Edelstein, "promised once or twice daily that he would send us the text of the law. A month has passed, and nothing has happened".

The Haredis Resume Boycotting Knesset Votes in Protest Against the Recruitment Law

The steps taken by the Haredi parties against their partners in the government coalition escalated last week after they threatened not to vote for proposed laws, prompting the government coalition to withdraw all bills that were scheduled for a vote in the Knesset's plenum. Until then, as part of their boycott, the Haredi parties were only refraining from voting with the coalition on the bills during preliminary readings, before later expanding their abstention to encompass all proposed laws, including government bills and those in the first, second, and third readings.

Last month, Haredi Knesset members threatened to vote in favor of a law proposed by the opposition parties to dissolve the Knesset; however, they reversed this decision and voted against it after reaching understandings with Edelstein. Meanwhile, two Knesset members from "Agudat Israel", part of the "United Torah Judaism" party, voted in favor of the bill, after which the Minister of Construction and Housing, Yitzhak Goldknopf, resigned from the government in protest against what he considered a violation of the coalition agreement with "United Torah Judaism".