Despite the outbreak of war with Iran, and the consequent pausing of most parliamentary activity, the Knesset’s ultra-Orthodox parties have reportedly continued pushing for the advancement of legislation exempting yeshiva students from military service.

According to the Behadrei Haredim news site, the Shas and Degel HaTorah factions urged Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee legal adviser Miri Frenkel Shor on Sunday to finalize the text of the controversial bill so that it can be advanced to a final vote as soon as the Knesset ceases operating on a limited emergency footing.

The latest version of the bill, drafted by committee chairman Boaz Bismuth of Likud, would codify blanket exemptions from military service for full-time yeshiva students, while setting modest conscription targets for Haredi men as a whole. It is currently undergoing revisions by Frenkel Shor in preparation for a committee vote to advance it to its final two readings in the plenum, after which it would be enacted.

The bill has come under fire from IDF brass, the attorney general, and a wide array of other critics, who have objected to it on the grounds that it is full of loopholes, preserves inequality in the mandatory draft, and will not increase Haredi enlistment amid what the military says is a manpower shortage.

The Haredi parties’ demand came days after the Maariv daily reported that Frenkel Shor had presented them with a draft containing all of her proposed changes, many of which have generated intense pushback from Haredi figures over the past two months.

A similar demand for Frenkel Shor’s final draft of the bill was reportedly made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition last month, prior to the outbreak of the war.

“The Knesset is currently only holding........

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