Knesset Panel Advances Draft-Evader Arrest Freeze for Final Votes

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee voted 8-7 Sunday to advance Amendment 26 to the Defense Service Law, freezing arrests of qualifying yeshiva and kollel students, for second and third readings. The temporary measure would run through November 30, with eligibility tied to at least 45 weekly Torah-study hours in a yeshiva or 40 in a kollel, excluding customary vacation periods. The defense minister would set the recognized-institution list and appoint inspectors; repeated absence of at least 20% could remove an institution. Committee legal adviser Miri Frenkel-Shor called the proposal a sectoral exemption lacking balancing safeguards, while chairman Boaz Bismuth said arrests had not improved Haredi enlistment.