{"id":147809,"date":"2026-07-11T04:49:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T04:49:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/147809\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T04:49:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T04:49:23","slug":"benjamin-netanyahu-coalition-removes-clause-from-torah-study-bill-to-advance-knesset-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/147809\/","title":{"rendered":"Benjamin Netanyahu coalition removes clause from Torah study bill to advance Knesset vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Knesset\u2019s House Committee approved on Thursday to advance the contentious bill that seeks to enshrine Torah study as a fundamental value in the country\u2019s Basic Law,<\/a> ahead of its final second and third readings required to become law.<\/p>\n

The haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties \u2013 Shas and United Torah Judaism \u2013 had reached an agreement with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s coalition shortly before the vote to amend the bill following legal warnings about a section of the legislation.<\/p>\n

The agreement comes just before the expected end of the Knesset summer session, after the haredi parties had boycotted votes on coalition legislation when their bills were not advancing quickly enough.<\/p>\n

The bill\u2019s second section, which called to \u201ccreate a balance\u201d through Torah study as a fundamental value, had been the clause that threatened to stall the bill\u2019s progress before it was removed.<\/p>\n

The House Committee vote is subject to revision, and both coalition and opposition lawmakers have warned that even with the change to the wording, the essence of the law has not been altered.<\/p>\n

\"AA haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jew takes part in a parade in the Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem for a Haredi draft dodger who was released from military prison, December 18, 2025; illustrative. (credit: CHAIM GOLDBERG\/FLASH90)<\/p>\n

The bill is part of a proposal that critics argue encourages draft evasion and changes the status of yeshiva students who do not serve, enabling them to continue receiving state benefits, even amid the IDF\u2019s severe manpower shortage.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu, Haredi parties agree to amend controversial Basic Law: Torah Study bill<\/p>\n

Knesset legal adviser Sagit Afik warned that the bill\u2019s previous wording could grant haredim who evade military service benefits similar to those available to IDF reservists. She had called for the legislation to be changed so that it would be purely declarative.<\/p>\n

The joint statement from the haredi parties on the coalition agreement said that, under the instruction of senior Torah leaders, it was agreed that \u201cthe law will include only the first and central clause, which states that Torah study is a fundamental value in the heritage of the Jewish people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coalition whip Ofir Katz (Likud), who also chairs the committee on which the bill is advanced, said that an agreement with the haredi parties was reached, under which the section on the \u201cbalance of values\u201d would be removed from the bill.<\/p>\n

MK Moshe Gafni, leader of the haredi Degel HaTorah faction of United Torah Judaism, had previously demanded on Wednesday that Netanyahu advance the bill unchanged.<\/p>\n

Gafni\u2019s demand threatened to stall the bill, which the haredi parties have been pushing for.<\/p>\n

The move to change the wording has been seen as a way for the haredi parties to back down so that the legislation can progress amid the sharp legal criticism and backlash.<\/p>\n

\"CombatCombat veterans suffering from PTSD react during a House committee meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament in Jerusalem on, July 9, 2026. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL\/FLASH90)IDF veterans with PTSD confront haredi MKs, demand support<\/p>\n

During the committee meeting to debate the bill on Thursday ahead of the vote, clashes broke out after combat veterans confronted haredi lawmakers demanding that the government address their needs and provide greater support for soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder<\/a> before advancing the contentious legislation.<\/p>\n

The group of combat veterans<\/a> stood up and approached the lawmakers directly. One of the veterans, Yossi Sardi, left his seat and confronted United Torah Judaism leader MK Yitzhak Goldknopf, shouting that legislation should be passed to support IDF soldiers rather than advancing the bill.<\/p>\n

Another combat veteran told the committee that the country\u2019s political leadership had been delaying proper support for IDF veterans and soldiers for six years.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve been making promises for six years; how much is too much?\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve paid with our blood.\u201d Due to the outburst, the meeting had to be stopped and went on a break before returning to continue deliberating the legislation.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the meeting, Einav Danino, the mother of Ori Danino, who was murdered in Hamas captivity, told the panel that soldiers must be prioritized, speaking on how the IDF had brought the remains of her son back to her from Gaza.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy Ori was murdered after 11 months in captivity, and I live with that pain thanks to the soldiers who brought him back to me, and they carry that burden with them. I would never have gotten Ori back without them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Torah study bill is part of a series of haredi-backed bills being advanced, amid numerous reports of agreements between the haredi parties and Netanyahu.<\/p>\n

The coalition has been pushing a legislative blitz ahead of the Knesset\u2019s final week of its summer session to advance as much legislation as possible before the upcoming elections.<\/p>\n

The haredi parties boycotted coalition voting last month \u2013 stalling coalition bills \u2013 arguing that their legislation was not being advanced quickly enough.<\/p>\n

Among the most controversial haredi-backed legislation is the Basic Law: Torah Study bill, as well as separate legislation that would temporarily freeze the arrests of haredi draft evaders.<\/p>\n

The bill to freeze such arrests will continue to be debated in the Knesset\u2019s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Thursday after a week of marathon meetings on the matter.<\/p>\n

The Basic Law: Torah study bill proposal calls for Torah study to be \u201ca fundamental value in the heritage of the Jewish people and in the State of Israel.<\/p>\n

It had previously also proposed that the country recognize \u201cTorah study as a fundamental value in the State of Israel in order to create a balance of justice in relation to other fundamental values in the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

That clause was removed after the coalition agreement was made.<\/p>\n

Israel does not have a constitution, and instead has a series of Knesset-legislated basic laws on various subjects that hold a high legal status.<\/p>\n

There had also previously been contentious wording in the bill\u2019s proposal that equated those who study Torah with those who serve in the IDF. This comparison has since been removed from the legislation\u2019s new draft.<\/p>\n

Critics argued that the legislation could implicitly allow the comparison despite the change in wording. Lawmakers in Netanyahu\u2019s coalition have publicly opposed the legislation and voted against it.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu arrived at the plenum last week to vote in favor of the legislation when it passed its first reading.<\/p>\n

The haredi parties have continuously encouraged the coalition to advance legislation that would not increase haredi enlistment. The IDF has repeatedly warned of an urgent manpower shortage after more than two years of war.<\/p>\n

In April, the High Court of Justice ordered that the state take concrete steps to revoke key financial benefits from draft evaders and to move toward criminal enforcement against haredi men who evade military service.<\/p>\n

In March, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir<\/a> said the IDF could soon collapse if no solution was found for the manpower shortage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Knesset\u2019s House Committee approved on Thursday to advance the contentious bill that seeks to enshrine Torah study…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[16469],"tags":[51210,244,2502,39686,18016,40280,40281],"class_list":["post-147809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-basic-law","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-coalition","tag-haredi","tag-knesset","tag-shas","tag-united-torah-judaism"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116899542901056931","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}