Khaberni -The United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party, a religiously conservative faction in Israel, announced that it will withdraw from the ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu due to a long-standing dispute regarding the lack of drafting a law to exempt religious school students from military service.
Six of the remaining seven members of United Torah Judaism, comprising the Degel HaTorah and Agudat Yisrael factions, wrote resignation letters. Yitzhak Goldknopf, the leader of UTJ, had resigned a month earlier.
This move will leave Netanyahu with a very slim majority of 61 seats in the 120-seat Knesset.
It remains unclear whether Shas, another religiously conservative party, will follow suit.
The Degel HaTorah faction stated in a press release that after consulting with its principal rabbis and "after repeated violations by the government of its commitments to ensure the sacred status of Jewish religious school students who engage earnestly in their studies... (Knesset members) announced their resignation from the coalition and government."
The religiously conservative parties claim that drafting a law to exempt religious school students from military service was a key promise when they agreed to join the coalition in late 2022.
