The legal adviser to the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee has issued a scathing opinion against proposed legislation aimed at halting the arrests of Yeshiva Bochrim, warning that the bill has evolved into what she described as a “mini draft exemption law.”

In a sharply worded letter to committee members, attorney Miri Frenkel-Shor argued that the legislation no longer merely provides a temporary freeze on criminal proceedings and arrests, as originally intended. Instead, she said, it creates a long-term workaround to broader draft exemption legislation while legitimizing military non-enlistment.

“In practice, this is a ‘mini draft law’ whose central purpose is to regulate the status of yeshiva students both in the immediate term and looking toward the future,” Frenkel-Shor wrote.

She warned that the proposal effectively grants advance immunity to current and future draft-age Chareidim by shielding them from criminal prosecution if they decline to serve.

“The proposed arrangement grants legitimacy to future candidates for military service not to comply with the Security Service Law,” she wrote. “It provides them with immunity in advance and protection from criminal proceedings.”

According to the legal opinion, the revised legislation also removes key provisions that were included in earlier drafts, including military recruitment targets and economic sanctions against those who refuse to enlist or institutions that fail to comply.

Frenkel-Shor concluded that, taken together, the bill would allow future Bnei Yeshiva to avoid military service without facing meaningful enforcement mechanisms or penalties, fundamentally altering the intent of the original proposal.

The legislation is expected to be debated by the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee this week.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)