Netanyahu condemns attack on haredi MK targeted over draft law

Amid the public debate over the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox men in the Israel Defense Forces, haredi protesters targeted a lawmaker from their own community, ambushing his car during a demonstration in Jerusalem on Saturday night.

Dozens of protesters jumped on Shas Party MK Yoav Ben-Tzur’s vehicle, threw cardboard boxes and garbage bags on it, and broke a window as he tried to leave a synagogue in the Israeli capital’s Bukharan Quarter. Security forces were called to the scene to escort him to safety.

Ben-Tzur’s office described the incident as a “lynch attempt.”

The young demonstrators were from Sephardi yeshivahs and from the Ashkenazi Jerusalem Faction, Israel’s Channel 12 reported. The Jerusalem Faction is known for taking a more conservative position regarding compulsory conscription for yeshivah students.

The attack was condemned across the political spectrum. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the melee, carried out by “a wild handful of demonstrators.”

Although Shas represents haredi interests, its members have faced backlash for supporting the haredi draft bill proposed by Likud MK Boaz Bismuth, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Shas says it seeks to counter what it calls a “persecution campaign” against yeshivah students and views the bill as a means to protect them from the draft as the bill only focuses on enlisting those who are not studying in yeshivahs, or Jewish seminaries.

While the full text of Bismuth’s draft bill has not been released to the press, reports indicate it would require 50% of haredi men who are not students to be drafted within five years. Men aged 26 and older would be exempt from conscription.

Frustrated at the slow pace of the legislation, the Shas Party announced in late October that its members would resign from all their coalition positions in the Knesset to protest the government’s failure to advance it. “When the status of the yeshivah students is resolved, Shas will return to its positions in the government and the Knesset,” the party said.

Shas continues to support the Netanyahu government, however, not wishing to topple it.

Shas takes its orders directly from its spiritual leadership, the Council of Torah Sages. The Council has not yet announced whether it will support the bill.

In an attempt to influence the final decision, extremist elements among the haredim who oppose any IDF enlistment have ramped up their protests. They have also waged a campaign against Shas Party leader Aryeh Deri.

Deri has been accused by another Haredi party, United Torah Judaism (UTJ), of “selling the world of Torah.” UTJ, which has taken a firmer stand against the Netanyahu government, quit the coalition in July after what it considered unauthorized changes were made to the draft bill.

“Participation in the government and the coalition should be immediately terminated,” wrote Rabbi Dov Landau in a letter ordering the departure.

Landau, the spiritual leader in Israel’s Lithuanian haredi community, was reportedly the individual who called for the “million-man march” on Oct. 30. The protest drew some 300,000 haredim at the entrance to Jerusalem to protest efforts to enlist them in the IDF and to condemn the arrests of yeshivah students who ignored enlistment orders.

A broad swath of Israelis believe haredim should take a greater role in Israel’s national defense, especially in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre. Many Israelis served for months without reprieve during the ensuing war.

The IDF has said it faces “broad and urgent manpower needs,” which it presented to Bismuth’s committee.

Ultra-Orthodox men have long received near-blanket exemptions from military service, a policy that began as a release for about 400 Torah scholars at the state’s founding. In June 2024, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that haredi men must be conscripted, effectively ending the decades-long exemption system.

However, of the 19,000 summonses to haredi men issued by early June 2025, only about 5% (996) reported to induction centers. Of those, just 1.2% (232) were actually conscripted, the Israel Democracy Institute reported.