United Torah Judaism chairman and Construction Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf stated this evening (Wednesday) that if the Draft Law is not passed during the Knesset's winter session, the government's planned judicial reforms would not be allowed to pass and the government may even collapse.
The Draft Law would enshrine in law the exemptions from military service that haredi yeshiva students receive. The latest version of the bill would also lower the age of exemption so that haredi men could enter the workforce at a younger age.
Speaking to the haredi news site Kikar Hashabbat, Goldknopf lamented that the haredi political parties did not insist that the Draft Law be passed immediately upon the formation of the government in January.
"We had to pass it together with the Ben-Gvir law that was passed at the time, and there was the Deri law, and there was a law by the prime minister who wanted to make sure that there would not be too many MKs, all these laws, and then the Draft Law had to be passed, and if not, a government would not have been formed. But we saw how great the opposition was and our sages agreed that it would be passed along with the budget," he said.
When asked if the failure to pass the Draft Law would cause the collapse of the government, he said: "This is the instruction that was, this is the instruction that is, and this is the instruction that will be."
"There is a Likud commitment to us that nothing else will pass before the Draft Law is passed. I have the signature of the government secretary here in my pocket," he said.
Goldknopf said that if the legislation required an Override Clause to prevent the Supreme Court from striking down the Draft Law as it has for multiple previous Draft Laws, then an Override Clause would be included. He added that if accompanying legislation granting more benefits to IDF soldiers was required for the Draft Law to pass, the haredi parties would support that additional legislation.