Both of the coalition’s ultra-Orthodox parties will boycott votes on coalition legislation on Wednesday, in protest of the government’s failure to pass a law exempting yeshiva students from military service.

A spokesman for United Torah Judaism, MK Moshe Gafni, the chairman of the party’s Degel HaTorah faction, confirmed Hebrew media reports that UTJ had decided on Monday, during its weekly faction meeting, that, starting on Wednesday, the party would no longer vote with the coalition.

Frustrated by the government’s failure to pass a bill, party officials had previously said that they no longer considered themselves bound by coalition discipline going into the Knesset’s summer session, which began this week and will run until the end of July.

Gafni’s spokesman also confirmed that UTJ is coordinating its actions with its fellow ultra-Orthodox party, Shas, with both parties informing coalition whip Ofir Katz (Likud) that they would act in concert in boycotting bills during Wednesday’s plenum session.

A spokesman for Shas, Chairman Aryeh Deri, did not immediately answer a request for comment.

Responding to UTJ and Shas’s boycott threats, Likud MK Dan Illouz declared on X that “if the Haredi factions boycott the government’s votes and harm the ability to maintain a normal daily routine, the Likud should also be freed from automatically voting for their legislation.”

“The Likud is not a doormat, but a magnificent national movement — the largest in the coalition and in the Knesset. I will not let you humiliate us,” he wrote.

UTJ also appeared to threaten on Monday to withdraw from the government completely, party MK Yaakov Asher telling Haredi news site Kikar HaShabbat (Hebrew) that if the Knesset does not pass draft exemption legislation by the end of the summer session, his party will no longer be able to remain in the government.

In an interview, Asher said that, while his party gave the coalition more time after it had failed to pass such a law before the 2025 state budget, it cannot wait any longer.

“If this law does not pass in this session…we will have a very big problem sitting in such a government, period,” he said, adding that UTJ “cannot be part of a government” that turns Haredim “into........

© The Times of Israel