Following a letter from Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs and mounting pressure from the Chareidi parties, Defense Minister Yisrael Katz on Sunday called for an urgent meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to advance a temporary order to freeze the arrests of bnei yeshivos.

The proposed freeze would last three months—until election day.

In his letter, Katz wrote that the committee should convene “in light of the Cabinet Secretary’s letter sent with the Prime Minister’s approval,” and stressed the need to clearly define who qualifies as a yeshiva student whose Torah study is his full‑time occupation, and under what conditions enforcement can be suspended.

The move comes after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s press conference on Motzei Shabbos, during which he emphasized that arrests of bnei yeshivos harm efforts to increase enlistment among Chareidim.

Following Netanyahu’s remarks, Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs issued a letter calling for a time‑limited freeze on arrests. Fuchs noted that the Attorney General instructed the IDF to carry out arrest operations in cooperation with the Israel Police, without distinguishing between bnei yeshivos who are learning full-time and those who are not. In addition, the policy, “which is being implemented despite the Attorney General’s previous lack of involvement in enforcement policy toward the general public, has deepened the rift with the Chareidi public and has not contributed to enlistment.”

The proposed temporary order would include clear definitions of who qualifies as a yeshiva student, oversight and enforcement mechanisms, and a list of approved yeshivos. Its stated goal is to ensure that genuine talmidei yeshivos will not be persecuted, while enforcement would continue against those who are not learning full-time.

Meanwhile, the Knesset has begun debating the Basic Law: Limmud Torah, advanced by MK Moshe Gafni of Degel HaTorah.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)