Shas will not vote on the 2026 state budget unless the controversial haredi (ultra-Orthodox) conscription law is passed, party spokesperson Asher Medina said, issuing a threat that could trigger an election.
Without the support of Shas lawmakers, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government could lack the votes needed to pass the budget.
“Shas will not vote on the state budget unless the conscription law passes,” Medina said in an interview with Kol Barama radio on Sunday.
If the state budget is not approved by the end of March, at the close of the fiscal year, the Knesset will automatically dissolve, and elections will be called. Elections are currently scheduled for October.
Approval of the state budget still requires three readings in the Knesset plenum.
Critics argue that the haredi draft bill fails to meaningfully enforce haredi conscription and serves primarily as a political solution, following the departure of the haredi parties – Shas and United Torah Judaism – from the government in July over a previous outline of the bill. Shas, however, remained in the coalition, still able to take part in voting.
IDF reports ongoing severe manpower shortages
Meanwhile, the IDF has repeatedly warned that it is facing a severe manpower shortage in combat units, particularly after more than two years of war.
Medina added that Shas party leader Arye Deri “is the one holding the government together.”
Deri had threatened in December not to support the 2026 state budget if haredi families were excluded from a government food-voucher program, a threat he later withdrew after the program was reinstated the following day.
However, the party had not previously threatened openly to halt votes regarding the haredi draft bill.
“The conscription law, from the perspective of the haredi public, is the most far-reaching law imaginable,” Medina said. “With God’s help, we will support the law because it is the only thing that will save the world of Torah.”
“The only thing that will stop the arrests [of haredi draft evaders] is not demonstrations, but legislation,” he added.
Critics of the current version of the bill have also noted that the haredi parties’ support of the legislation reflects that it does not aim to enforce ultra-Orthodox conscription.
Marathon discussions have been taking place in the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, where a revised version of the bill is being advanced under committee chair Likud MK Boaz Bismuth.
On Sunday, debates continued all day into the evening in the Knesset.
For the first time, the panel focused on the sanctions section targeting draft dodgers, widely criticized as overly lenient and ineffective in enforcing IDF enlistment in Bismuth’s revised version of the bill.
Sanctions are considered one of the most significant and contentious components of the legislation.
UTJ chairperson Yitzhak Goldknopf sparked outrage during the discussions by comparing the enforcement of conscription for yeshiva students to “placing a yellow star on them,” referencing the Nazi-imposed badge Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust.
“I beg you, exempt them from everything,” Goldknopf told the panel.
Protests against haredi conscription took place across the country on Sunday, with demonstrators clashing with police at several locations.