Coalition cleared parliamentary agenda ahead of vote for Knesset dissolution after ultra-Orthodox lawmakers push for early election.
By World Israel News Staff
The Knesset voted unanimously on Wednesday in favor of a bill dissolving the 25th Knesset, opening a possible path to early elections after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to resolve a coalition crisis over military deferments for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.
The bill, which passed its reading by a 110 to 0 margin, does not set an election date.
Wednesday’s vote marked the preliminary reading of the bill, which must still go to committee and pass three further readings before the Knesset is formally dissolved.
Elections must be held no later than October 27 in any case, but ultra-Orthodox parties are pushing for an earlier vote, possibly in September, while Netanyahu is seeking to retain control through the end of the Knesset’s term.
The crisis centers on the long-stalled draft deferment bill, which ultra-Orthodox parties have demanded for years and which became more urgent after the High Court ruled in June 2024 that there was no legal basis for the continuation of blanket deferments for yeshiva students from military service.
Roughly 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged 18 to 24 are believed to be eligible for service but have not enlisted.
Netanyahu has tried to revive the exemption bill in a last-minute effort to persuade the ultra-Orthodox parties to drop or delay their demand for early elections.
Kan reported that the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee was expected to resume work on the bill Wednesday, even though the coalition did not appear to have a secure majority for it in the plenum.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid accused Netanyahu of trying to buy time.
“Netanyahu knows he is facing defeat in the elections and will do everything to gain a few more days in the prime minister’s office,” Lapid said.
He called the attempt to pass the bill “another betrayal of IDF soldiers and reservists.”
Former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, now head of the Yashar party, said Netanyahu was making “another desperate attempt” to remain in power “at the expense of the national interest of strengthening the IDF during a comprehensive war.”
The ultra-Orthodox parties have increasingly voiced criticism of Netanyahu over the coalition’s failure to pass the draft law.
Rabbi Dov Lando, a spiritual leader of the United Torah Judaism party’s Degel HaTorah faction, instructed lawmakers “not to be dragged into political games” and to support dissolving the Knesset.
“We no longer have trust in Netanyahu. From now on we will do only what is good for Haredi Jewry and the world of yeshivas.”
Yair Golan, head of The Democrats, has urged other opposition leaders — including Naftali Bennett, Lapid, Eisenkot and Avigdor Liberman — to hold a joint press conference before the vote, in order to present a united front.
“We must stand together, shoulder to shoulder in front of the public,” he wrote, according to Times of Israel, and show “there is hope.”
