Former prime minister Naftali Bennett said Monday that should he win this year’s election, he would launch an investigation into “the sabotage of Haredi enlistment,” in a speech lambasting the government for sneaking new allocations to ultra-Orthodox institutions into the 2026 state budget the night before.

“In the new government, I will establish a special commission of inquiry regarding the sabotage of Haredi enlistment, in a time of war, which harmed Israel’s security,” said Bennett, who is seeking to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The promised probe “will look into who, exactly, acted to deprive us of tens of thousands of soldiers needed by the IDF in order to win. Everyone who knowingly took part in violating the Security Service Law during wartime will be investigated,” he said.

Bennett made the pledge in a brief address, broadcast live, the evening after the Knesset passed the 2026 budget in the early hours of Monday.

The legislation went through following a midnight political maneuver, in which dozens of opposition lawmakers mistakenly supported an amendment to earmark NIS 800 million (about $250m) for ultra-Orthodox educational institutions.

The last-minute allocation — which the attorney general later intervened to halt the actual provision of — came after the ultra-Orthodox parties agreed to support the budget despite the coalition’s failure to pass a bill enshrining blanket exemptions of yeshiva students from mandatory military service.

“In the middle of the night, the government of Netanyahu and the Haredim carried out a dark trick,” Bennett charged.

“They took from us, the serving and working public, another NIS 800 million, and transferred it to Haredi institutions that educate people to ‘die rather than enlist,'” he said, referring to a slogan frequently employed at ultra-Orthodox protests that oppose cracking down on draft-evaders.

He noted that the last-minute funds were “in addition to this reckless budget, which punishes those who serve and work, and rewards those who choose to evade the draft, and not to work.”

“Who is this a victory for? The owners of businesses that are falling apart? The reservists, who for two and a half years have given their entire selves, at a heavy cost to their family and finances?” Bennett demanded, in his three-minute message.

“Are you celebrating that you left elderly people in Kiryat Shmona without bomb shelters? That you left parents at home without any [educational] framework for their children? You have harmed all of us,” he charged.

His reference to the northern city came as both Iran and the Hezbollah terror group continue to pelt Israel with missiles and drones, and as children are out of school, amid the ongoing war.

“At a time when [IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir] is crying out, ‘I don’t have soldiers,’ you worked, knowingly, to prevent the conscription of tens of thousands,” Bennett continued.

It was reported last week that Zamir had urged the security cabinet to pass a mass conscription law and had warned that if a manpower shortage weren’t resolved, the military would ultimately “collapse in on itself.”

“But I tell you tonight, citizens of Israel, hold your head up high; these are the last days of this government – they’ll pay for this plunder at the ballot box,” Bennett promised, ahead of elections that are scheduled to be held by October of this year.

Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged between 18 and 24 are currently believed to be eligible for military service, but have not enlisted. During the course of the war in Gaza, the IDF repeatedly told lawmakers that it lacked 12,000 troops due to the strain of the conflict and other military challenges.

In June 2024, the High Court issued a ruling ordering the government to start conscripting Haredi men. Since then, yeshivas harboring draft dodgers have seen their budgets slashed, draft refusers have lost access to daycare subsidies for their children and other benefits, and the IDF has begun arresting small numbers of evaders, including some attempting to leave the country.

However, at the same time, the coalition has pushed for legislation that would codify blanket exemptions from military service for full-time yeshiva students, while setting modest conscription targets for Haredi men as a whole. The bill, which had come under fire from a wide array of critics, was recently set aside but may be revived later.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara recently told the High Court that Netanyahu’s government has failed to comply with a court order directing it to draw up sanctions against ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers.

At the same time, the IDF complained that the Israel Police has been systematically preventing the army from arresting draft evaders in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods.

Both the Attorney General’s Office and police have not taken action against a network of Haredi draft evasion hotlines, including one founded by former cabinet minister Meir Porush, which encourages yeshiva students to ignore conscription orders and actively mobilizes protesters to prevent the arrest of evaders.

Hardline Haredi groups have also paid grants to draft evaders released from military prison.

Leon Kraiem contributed to this report. 

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IDF Israel Defense Forces

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