Construction and Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf responded to the delay in the passage of a Draft Law, telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his party would quit the government if not for the war.
According to the report, during a conversation between the two, Goldknopf told Netanyahu, "We would have left the government ages ago due to the violated promises on the matter of the Draft Law."
Speaking to Kan Reshet Bet, Goldknopf said, "Netanyahu promised the haredi parties, in August 2023, that the law regulating the yeshiva students' exemption from enlisting in the IDF would be legislated during the winter session of that year. The Gerrer Rebbe, at the time, passed a message through the United Torah Judaism MKs, saying that the government has no right to exist without a Draft Law."
In the meantime, the law was met with obstacles, among other things from Likud members MK Amichai Chikli, Moshe Sa'ada, and Dan Iluz wrote a letter to the Prime Minister after the war broke out, saying, "We can no longer calmly accept a situation in which certain groups in society take the burden of security onto their shoulders, with its heavy price, while other groups in the nation of Israel continue to live their routines."
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant promised that he would not support the law, unless it received broad support, including from members of the opposition.
At the time, Netanyahu promised the haredi party heads that he would approve a private bill allowing an exemption from enlistment for yeshiva students. In June, the Knesset approved the revival of a Draft Law which had been put forth during the previous Knesset by MK Benny Gantz. However, a short time later, the Supreme Court ordered that all yeshiva students be drafted, and that funding for their yeshivas be ended.
UTJ then demanded that Netanyahu approve the Draft Law by the end of the Knesset's summer session, but this did not happen.