MKs threatened bill to disperse Knesset over IDF exemption, haredi paper reveals

There is a growing sense of urgency, but the "feeling" in the party is that at the moment there is no concrete proposal on the table to disperse the Knesset.

By ELIAV BREUER DECEMBER 5, 2024 16:53 Updated: DECEMBER 5, 2024 17:19

Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, leader of United Torah Judaism, arrives for a cabinet meeting together with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (photo credit: CHAIM GOLDBEG/FLASH90)

Members of the haredi party United Torah Judaism threatened Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently that they would propose a bill to disperse the Knesset if a bill to exempt the majority of haredi men from IDF service does not pass prior to the passing of the 2025 budget, the central haredi newspaper Mishpacha reported on Thursday.

According to the report, by Yisrael Peller and Kobi Bornstein, Motti Babchik, the chief of staff of UTJ chairman Yizhak Goldknopf, passed a message in recent days to the prime minister's office that if the issue was not solved, Netanyahu would not "enjoy the fruits" of the election of US president-elect Donald Trump, and would watch "via screens" as "[former prime ministers] Bennett and Lapid clap at the signing ceremony of a peace deal with Saudi Arabia".

According to Peller and Bornstein, officials in UTJ also said that “at the end of the day” the prime minister will receive two bill proposals - one of an "agreed upon" draft bill, and the other a bill to disperse the Knesset. There will be "no other choice" but to decide between them, the officials said, according to the report.

United Torah Judaism MKs Yitzchak Goldknopf and Moshe Gafni at a vote in the plenum session at the assembly hall of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, on December 20, 2022. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

Two sources in United Torah Judaism denied the report. According to one of them, there is a growing sense of urgency, but the "feeling" in the party is that at the moment there is no concrete proposal on the table to disperse the Knesset. Babchik did not respond to a query on the matter.

Budget majority  

Dispersing the Knesset leads automatically to an election. However, if the budget does not pass by March 1, the Knesset disperses as well - and a bill may be therefore unnecessary for the haredi parties to topple the government. Without the haredi parties' support, the budget would not have a majority.

According to a source, the two parts that make up UTJ – the Lithuanian Degel Hatorah and the Hassidic Agudat Yisrael – have differing views on the matter. Degel Hatorah has not threatened to resign from senior positions and/or quit the coalition, and is taking a quieter approach, trying to come to agreements with defense officials behind the scenes. According to the source, Agudat Yisrael is closer to making a public move on the matter.

The source added that there are differences of opinion within Agudat Yisrael, explaining that the spiritual leader of Golkdnopf’s Hassidut Gur is closer to ordering Goldknopf to resign than the Hassidic Council of Torah Sages ,which represents most of the other Hassidic groups, is to ordering the resignation of its representative in the government, Jerusalem and Tradition Minister Meir Porush. It remains unclear whether or not Agudat Yisrael makes a collective decision on the matter – and even if so, whether or not they suffice with a resignation from the government, and refrain from exiting the coalition and dispersing the Knesset.

The next deadline on the matter will come at the end of January, when the 2025 state budget is expected to pass into law. If the issue is not resolved by then, the following major hurdle will be the end of February – when, according to a recent High Court ruling, yeshiva students of military age will no longer be eligible for state-funded daycare for children younger than age three.