More On the Draft Conscription Bill: Loss of Driver’s License, Scholarships, and Ban on Leaving the Country

The latest draft of the Chok HaGiyus (Conscription Law) prepared by MK Boaz Bismuth (Likud), chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, introduces a series of personal sanctions aimed at yeshiva students who receive a draft order and fail to report for service, as reported yesterday by Matzav.com. 

According to the proposal, those who evade enlistment will face the loss of several rights and benefits. They will be barred from obtaining a driver’s license until the age of 23—by which time many in the yeshivah community are already married—prohibited from leaving the country, and denied access to scholarships, state employment, housing subsidies, and other financial benefits if annual recruitment targets are not met.

Committee legal adviser Adv. Miri Frankel-Shor submitted initial comments to the chairman, though she stated that her full position will be presented at the official hearing next week. Among her key recommendations is raising the first-year draft target from 4,800 to 5,760 recruits, arguing that the earlier figure applied to the previous year and no longer reflects 2025 demographics.

The plan sets out a gradual recruitment ladder: 5,760 recruits in the second year, 6,840 in the third, 7,920 in the fourth, and within five years, the conscription of half of each chareidi age cohort.

One significant change is the removal of the combat-service quota. The IDF clarified that it cannot control the precise number of soldiers assigned to combat roles, leading lawmakers to drop the requirement. The definition of “national-security service” will be expanded to include volunteering in rescue organizations and other emergency-response agencies.

The bill also narrows the definition of who qualifies as chareidi for legal purposes: anyone who studied in a yeshivah for at least two years will be counted within the chareidi population. Lawmakers said this definition was intended to include dropouts from yeshivah frameworks who still identify with the community.

The proposal limits the scope of the driving ban: it will apply only to new draft dodgers, meaning those who already hold a driver’s license will not have it revoked, in order to avoid retroactive punishment. The travel ban will also be capped—applying only until age 26—after concerns were raised that indefinite restrictions on leaving Israel could violate basic legal rights.

Public debate on the bill has been postponed to next week. Officially, the delay was made at the request of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who asked to review the text. However, sources said the decision was also influenced by appeals from chareidi factions who did not want discussions to coincide with Thursday’s massive “Million-Man Rally” in Jerusalem.

As previously reported by Matzav.com, the IDF chief of staff will establish a special committee to oversee implementation of the law. Members will include a retired dayan from the Chief Rabbinical Court, a former IDF chief rabbi, a representative from the Human Resources Directorate, and two senior officers appointed by the chief of staff.

The committee’s mandate will be to assess whether the IDF is meeting its commitments to create service tracks suitable for chareidim and to monitor compliance with the recruitment benchmarks.

{Matzav.com}