The Knesset’s preliminary approval of a Basic Law on Torah Study sparked fierce backlash Wednesday evening from opposition figures and even some coalition members. Critics slammed the legislation as a blow to equal burden-sharing, arguing it would cement military draft exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox and deepen divisions in Israeli society.
2+Yisrael Beiteinu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman tore into the bill’s passage, charging that “to preserve his bloc, Netanyahu is willing to dismantle the IDF and Israeli society as a whole.” He said the “Basic Law of Desecration” would remain “a mark of Cain on the October 7 massacre coalition.”
Yachad party leader Naftali Bennett pledged to scrap the law if he forms the next government. “The moment we establish the new government, we will repeal the Basic Law Disgracing the Torah,” he wrote. “The law will disappear, but the mark of shame on the Knesset members who supported it will remain.” Bennett added that “draft-dodging is the opposite of unity,” accusing the coalition of putting political interests ahead of security needs while the IDF is short tens of thousands of soldiers.
2+Likud MK Dan Illouz also came out against advancing the bill, calling it a “Basic Law of Torah Desecration.” He warned that pushing the legislation forward “stretches the rope between the serving public and the coalition to the breaking point,” and said caving to ultra-Orthodox demands could lead Likud to “crash at the polls.” Illouz argued the law’s purpose is to keep granting benefits to those who don’t serve, calling it “a true desecration of God’s name.”
Former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot criticized the bill’s approval as well. “The attempt to turn draft-dodging into a Basic Law is a direct blow to our national backbone,” he said. Eisenkot stressed that Torah study is an important value but cannot serve as “political cover for abandoning the mission of defending the state,” adding that those who backed the law “prefer the government’s survival over the resilience of the IDF and Israeli society.”
2+The Democrats chairman, Yair Golan, declared that a government led by his camp would work to repeal the law. “In our government, the Basic Law on Torah Study will be canceled, the ultra-Orthodox will enlist, and we will ensure true equality in burden-sharing,” he wrote. “The working and serving public will stop being the sucker carrying the ultra-Orthodox on its back.”