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.

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........

© The Times of Israel