The ultra-Orthodox Shas party announced on Thursday morning that it will withdraw from all coalition roles it holds in the Knesset, giving up its chairmanships of parliamentary committees to protest the lack of a law regulating the conscription of yeshiva students.

“In accordance with the directive of the Council of Torah Scholars… according to which the government must bring to a vote the law to regulate the status of yeshiva students no later than the opening of the winter session of the Knesset — which unfortunately has not yet been implemented — Shas announces its withdrawal from its coalition roles in the Knesset,” the party said in a statement.

In accordance with the announcement, Shas MKs Yossi Taib and Yoni Meshriki will give up their positions on the Education and Health committees, while Michael Malkieli will relinquish the chair of the Special Committee for Bridging Social Gaps in the Periphery.

Despite this, the party is not quitting the coalition and will not topple the government, although the move does put additional pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pass a military conscription bill, which has been derided by the opposition as the “evasion law.”

Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged between 18 and 24 are currently believed to be eligible for military service, but have not enlisted. The Israel Defense Forces has said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits due to the strain on standing and reserve forces caused by the war against Hamas in Gaza and other military challenges.

For the past year, the Haredi leadership has pushed to pass a law keeping its constituency out of the IDF, after the High Court ruled that decades-long blanket exemptions from army duty traditionally afforded to full-time Haredi yeshiva students were illegal.

In its statement on Thursday, Shas pledged to “continue to lead the struggle against........

© The Times of Israel