Haredi parties back down: Basic Law won’t put Torah study on par with IDF service

A controversial Basic Law bill will no longer explicitly place Torah study on par with military service, as ultra-Orthodox parties appeared on Thursday to have capitulated to demands to remove the key section from the quasi-constitutional legislation.

After the change was submitted, the legislation was approved by the Knesset House Committee in a 6-4 vote to advance its final votes, which are slated for next week. Ahead of today’s vote, the hearing on the bill in the committee erupted in shouting after it was interrupted by combat veterans with PTSD who berated the Haredi members of the panel.

Despite the last-minute change in wording, the bill would still declare Torah study to be a “foundational value” of the Jewish people and the State of Israel. If passed, it will be added to Israel’s Basic Laws, which act as the country’s supreme laws in place of a constitution. Haredi parties have pushed to pass the law as part of an ongoing struggle over whether yeshiva students should continue to receive blanket exemptions from IDF conscription.

“The Jewish state is restoring the honor of Torah and those who study it to its rightful place,” said Gafni after the bill’s advancement.

According to a statement from coalition whip and Likud MK Ofir Katz, Haredi parties agreed to remove a clause from the bill stating that the law seeks to “create a balance of justice” between this Basic Law “relative to other fundamental values in the state.” Legal officials warned that the clause could have entitled yeshiva students to financial and other benefits equal to or even exceeding those granted to soldiers.

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In a joint statement, the ultra-Orthodox Shas party and Degel HaTorah faction said they ultimately agreed, “under the instruction of the leading Torah sages,” to remove the clause.

But UTJ chairman and Agudat Yisrael leader Yitzhak Goldknopf said he was not consulted and opposes the move: “No one spoke to me about removing it, and I do not agree,” he said. “I ask that the clause remain, and I oppose its removal.”

At the same time, opposition lawmakers and legal advisers argued that removing the clause doesn’t change the purpose of the legislation.

Yesh Atid MK and committee member Naor Shiri said even without the removed clause, the bill would make Torah study the only value explicitly enshrined in a Basic Law — not military service, caring for soldiers with PTSD or other national values — effectively elevating it above all others.

“Priority will have to be given to those who study Torah, while all other values become secondary,” he said. “This law is not declarative.”

Deputy Attorney General Avital Sompolinsky argued that removing the clause does not necessarily make the bill merely declarative, saying the committee must explain what legal effect recognizing Torah study as a fundamental value is intended to have.

“If, as [Shas] MKs Yossi Taieb and [Yinon] Azoulay argued throughout the discussions, the intention is still to give the court a tool it did not previously have, then deleting the clause changes nothing,” she said.

Knesset legal adviser Sagit Afik and representatives of the National Insurance Institute have repeatedly warned that the bill, as originally drafted, could have significant legal consequences, including granting yeshiva students a wide range of financial benefits, including for housing, at great additional cost to the taxpayer.

Likud MK Dan Illouz, who broke coalition discipline to vote against the bill in its first reading last week, dismissed the compromise on Thursday as “window dressing.”

Arguing that removing the key clause “does not change the essence of the law,” he warned that enshrining Torah study as a quasi-constitutional value without explicitly stating that it cannot be used to justify draft exemptions would still “serve in practice to legitimize draft evasion and continued funding and benefits” for yeshiva students.

A hearing Thursday in the Knesset House Committee to advance the controversial proposed Basic Law was interrupted by combat veterans suffering from PTSD, who protested the legislation and demanded that the status of combat soldiers and the needs of those dealing with trauma be prioritized.

????️סערה בוועדת הכנסת |

הלומי קרב קטעו את הדיון בחוק יסוד: לימוד תורה כשהתפרצו לכיוון חברי הכנסת בדרישה לשנות את נוסח החוק@OfirKatzMK @Meravbenari @pnina_tamano_sh @DOVRUTGoldknopf https://t.co/faMPJhF5yW pic.twitter.com/5ALlvLwFhm

— ערוץ כנסת 99 (@KnessetT) July 9, 2026

Several veterans climbed over the tables to appeal directly to Katz and Goldknopf, urging them to halt the bill.

“You’ve all exploited us for political gain,” one said. “This is a national emergency. We are not protected by law.”

Goldknopf said to the protesters: “I hear you, and my heart aches. Bring me a bill [to protect your rights] and I will lead it,” he said, according to a transcript from the Knesset Spokesman’s Office. “I will fight for it with my last drop of blood. We need to give up many things for your sake.”

Yesh Atid MK Meirav Ben-Ari responded to Goldknopf: “But the Knesset is ending. You should have brought it forward two years ago.”

Einav Danino, the mother of slain hostage Ori Danino, voiced support during the committee for the veterans and called on lawmakers to prioritize them.

“My Ori was murdered after 11 months in captivity, and I live with that pain thanks to those who brought him back to me, and they carry that burden with them. I would never have gotten Ori back without them,” she said, adding, “I saw Ori before I buried him — a beautiful young man with 11 gunshot wounds. But what did those who rescued him see? That their bodies survived, but their souls died.”