“Shame” Chants Rock Knesset As Netanyahu Faces Fury Over Ultra Orthodox Draft Bill

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was heckled inside the Knesset plenum on Tuesday as opposition lawmakers shouted "Shame" and "Leave" while he entered ahead of a vote on a bill to freeze arrests of ultra Orthodox draft evaders. Netanyahu left the chamber before the vote and did not cast a ballot, marking the third consecutive time he skipped a vote on a divisive coalition bill this week.

The bill passed by 58 votes to 54 after an overnight standoff in which United Torah Judaism chief Moshe Gafni threatened to block all other coalition legislation unless it was brought to an immediate vote. The law grants tens of thousands of haredi draft evaders immunity from arrest until November 30, extending the same protection to men who become eligible for service after it takes effect.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel resigned from the government hours after the vote, telling reporters she could no longer support a government that harmed national security during wartime and that the law hurt those who had spent three years fighting on the frontlines. Likud lawmakers Yuli Edelstein and Dan Illouz, along with Religious Zionism MK Moshe Solomon, also voted against the bill.

IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir had earlier warned in a letter to Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz that the legislation was unequivocally inconsistent with the military's manpower needs. Following the vote, opposition parties Yesh Atid and Yisrael Beiteinu petitioned the High Court against the law, calling it a deepening of discrimination between citizens.

The debate also renewed controversy over disclosure, after the Knesset legal adviser instructed ultra Orthodox lawmakers to declare whether relatives could personally benefit from the bill. Opposition lawmaker Elazar Stern alleged that Shas chairman Aryeh Deri had drafted evader grandchildren, prompting his microphone to be cut off, while Deri himself welcomed the bill's passage as a rebuke to the ousted attorney general.

The vote comes days before the Knesset enters its election recess on July 17, with elections due by October 27. Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot accused the coalition of weakening the military mid war, while Democrats chief Yair Golan called the vote one of the greatest moments of disgrace in the Knesset's history.