Overview
- Coalition negotiators agreed Tuesday to strip the bill’s clause that treated long‑term Torah learners as performing service comparable to IDF servicemembers in order to broaden support for the Basic Law: Torah Study.
- Religious Zionism, led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, publicly refused to back any version that equated yeshiva students with soldiers and pressed for the language change.
- Charedi parties, including Shas and United Torah Judaism and their leaders such as Aryeh Deri, exerted intense pressure and threatened to block other legislation if the Basic Law was not advanced quickly.
- The revised bill was placed on the Ministerial Committee for Legislation agenda and is expected to return to committee before a preliminary or first‑reading Knesset vote this week.
- Supporters say the Basic Law would enshrine Torah study as a constitutional value and limit High Court intervention in exemptions; critics in outlets from Haaretz to Rationalist Judaism warn it institutionalizes unequal burden‑sharing and deepens social divisions.