Overview
- On Sunday Shas chairman Aryeh Deri and United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf toured Prison 10, met yeshiva students held on draft‑related charges, and handed out religious books.
- Deri and Goldknopf denounced the arrests as the criminalization of Torah study and said they will move to advance a Basic Law to protect full‑time Torah learners.
- The detainees remain in military detention and are being processed through military courts as legal proceedings continue.
- Deri rejected calls that Haredi parties seek a blanket exemption, said they want formal status for professional Torah study, and affirmed Shas and UTJ will not break from the right‑wing bloc.
- Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich publicly condemned the prison visits as insensitive, a response that has sharpened intra‑coalition friction and raised the stakes for negotiations over conscription and religious accommodation.