Israel’s Knesset opened its winter session on Monday against a backdrop of war in Gaza and Lebanon, after an Israeli strike on Iran on Saturday and amid tensions within Israel itself.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition controls the Knesset, or parliament. The coalition is made up of his right-wing Likud party, the largest, and governs with six smaller parties, including two from the far-right.
Here is a look at some key legislative items on the agenda:
Conscription
Israel’s Supreme Court issued a ruling in June that there was no legal basis for the longstanding military exemption given to ultra-Orthodox religious students and, as a result, the military must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox Jewish men.
The exemption has polarized Israeli society, pitting secular Jews against the ultra-Orthodox, who say their religious study is as essential and protective as the military. Division over the issue has intensified during the wars in Gaza and Lebanon, with some arguing that the exemption unfairly places the burden of military service on Israelis who are not ultra-Orthodox. The ruling also exposed the fault lines in Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition, which depends on the support of two ultra-Orthodox parties that oppose ending the exemption.
At the same time, the matter is a source of tension between Mr. Netanyahu and defense minister Yoav Gallant, who wants a broader consensus over the issue. Mr. Gallant voted against a draft bill on enlistment in June.
Lawmakers are expected to introduce bills to translate the court’s ruling into legislation. The government has been seeking a compromise over the issue, according to Israeli media reports. The chairman of the Knesset’s foreign affairs committee, Yuli Edelstein, has said on social media that he is pursuing a deal that he hoped would be acceptable to all parties.
Israel’s state broadcaster, Kan, reported that Mr. Netanyahu called on Monday for accelerated talks between ultra-Orthodox parties and pushed Mr. Edelstein to find a compromise. The timing of any potential legislation is unclear.
UNRWA
The Knesset was set to debate on Monday bills that would make it illegal for Israeli officials to cooperate with UNRWA, the main U.N. agency that aids Palestinians. The bills would effectively shut down the agency’s work in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem within 90 days. UNRWA has played a leading role in running schools and hospitals and distributing food in Gaza, and it says that more than 230 of its staff have been killed in the war there over the past year.
According to the Jerusalem Post, the first bill states that UNRWA could no longer operate in Israel, while the second would abrogate the treaty that underpins the relationship between UNRWA and Israel.
UNRWA has long been criticized by Israeli officials, but that disapproval intensified in January when Israel’s government claimed that 12 of the agency’s employees had participated in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack last year that prompted the war in Gaza. It later added a further seven cases. In August, U.N. investigators cleared 10 UNWRA employees of taking part in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, but nine others were fired because of possible involvement, the United Nations said.
A recent statement by seven governments including Canada, France, Germany, Australia and the United Kingdom expressed “grave concern” about the Knesset legislation and said that UNRWA provided “essential and life-saving humanitarian aid.” The United States has also expressed support for UNRWA.
Israeli media reports said on Monday that a bill was likely to pass a preliminary reading.
Incitement to terrorism
The Knesset will consider a bill brought by right-wing lawmakers that could make it easier for the police to open an investigation into a person on suspicion of incitement to terrorism.
The bill says that “identifying with a terrorist organization is a criminal offense,” if “the act has a real possibility that this will lead to the performance of an act of terrorism.”
In practice, critics said the bill would lower the bar for investigations of individuals for social media posts and other forms of speech about security issues. The Knesset has already voted in favor of advancing the bill and it is being prepared for a second and third reading.
Civil rights groups have accused the police of the political persecution of Palestinian citizens of Israel since the attack by Hamas last Oct. 7, and Adalah, a legal center for the rights of the Arab minority in Israel, said last week that the bill would institutionalize that persecution.
Police records showed in May that 162 indictments for incitement to terrorism had been filed since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack last year. According to Adalah, nearly every case involved Arab citizens of Israel or Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, who have mostly declined to apply for citizenship after Israel annexed the area.
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