The government postponed the scheduled first reading vote of Israel’s 2026 state budget in the Knesset on Monday amid disagreements with the haredi parties - Shas and United Torah Judaism – over the controversial haredi conscription bill, leading to a crisis within the coalition.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a heated emergency meeting with Shas Party leader Arye Deri, MK Moshe Gafni from United Torah Judaism, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on the matter.
Smotrich reportedly had threatened Netanyahu, saying that if the state budget was not brought to a vote on Monday as planned, the Knesset should be dissolved, regardless of early elections.
The finance minister said he no longer wants the state budget to be connected to the haredi draft bill negotiations.
“I demand that the haredi parties completely separate the issue of conscription from the budget,” Smotrich said in a later statement.
“A state budget cannot be used as leverage by anyone, ever, and certainly not during wartime,” he added.
The state budget vote is part of the high-stakes process that could trigger early elections in the country and has a limited time frame to be passed.
If the state budget is not approved in all three readings by the end of March, when the fiscal year closes, the Knesset will automatically dissolve, and elections will be called.
Postponing the vote on Monday was triggered by demands from the haredi parties over the draft bill, sources within the United Torah Judaism Party (UTJ) confirmed to The Jerusalem Post.
“There are disagreements on a number of sections of the bill,” a UTJ source told the Post.
Attempts were made to reach agreements ahead of the new date for the state budget vote, which has been scheduled for Wednesday.
Various other meetings were held between coalition members and haredi party members in the Knesset throughout the day.
Netanyahu has been left without a stable coalition majority since July, following the collapse of negotiations over the haredi conscription legislation, which led haredi parties to exit the government.
Both haredi parties have threatened to withhold support for the state budget unless agreements are reached on the draft law to avoid conscription. They have also threatened to vote against the state budget if the haredi draft bill is not passed beforehand.
Lapid: 'We will not allow it to pass'
Opposition leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) said, “The reason the budget isn’t being brought to a vote on Monday is that the haredi parties realized that the draft-evasion law will not pass. We will not allow it to pass.”
Lapid also asserted that he plans on bringing the bill to dissolve the Knesset to a vote in the plenum on Wednesday.
By law, six months must pass before the Knesset dispersal bill can be brought again to a vote, a period that has now elapsed since the last coalition crisis over the haredi draft bill in June.
Haredi parties ultimately voted with the coalition despite threats to dissolve the Knesset over the draft law in June, after various agreements were made to change the draft bill.
Critics of the draft bill outline argue that the current outline fails to enforce haredi conscription and serves primarily as a political measure to appease the haredi parties. The IDF has repeatedly said it is in urgent need of more manpower, especially after over two years of war.
On Tuesday, committee meetings in the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to advance the draft bill are expected to continue.
The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s legal adviser has criticized certain sections of the haredi draft bill that are expected to require changes.
It had been reported on Sunday that the government had made agreements with the haredi parties to allow for the passage of the state budget on Monday.
The government had reportedly persuaded the haredi parties to support the budget in its first reading, with assurances that the draft legislation would advance soon after. Though these agreements appeared to fall through on Monday.
The government is on a limited schedule to bring the state budget for the first reading vote, according to Israeli law.
The law stipulates that at least 60 days must pass between the approval of the state budget’s first reading and its subsequent second and third readings.
This means the bill must clear its first reading this week to make it before the March deadline.