Opposition leader Yair Lapid vows to ban voting rights for Israelis who dodge IDF service, sparking a fierce political and moral battle over equality, faith, and national duty.
In a fiery declaration that sent shockwaves through Israel’s political system, Opposition leader Yair Lapid announced Monday that under his next government, citizens who refuse IDF enlistment will lose the right to vote.
“If you don’t report to the IDF induction center, you won’t report to the ballot box. If you don’t enlist, you won’t vote,” Lapid thundered at the start of Yesh Atid’s faction meeting, framing military service as a sacred civic obligation — not a political choice.
Lapid savaged the coalition’s proposed Draft Law, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Shas leader Aryeh Deri of deceit.
“Netanyahu and Deri aren’t even pretending they want to draft the haredim,” he said. “This proposal is full of lies and hypocrisy. From day one, this government has said: no to drafting haredim — yes to collecting money.”
Turning his fire on MK Boaz Bismuth’s bill, Lapid labeled it “a disgraceful draft-dodging law”, claiming it was written to guarantee that “no haredi will ever serve, be injured, or die for Israel — or even be part of its story.”
Lapid reaffirmed his party’s previous stance — to deny voting rights to draft evaders, framing it as a matter of equality, not punishment.
“This isn’t against the haredim,” he stressed. “It’s an invitation — to join the Israeli story, to share our destiny. In a country where everyone has obligations, only those who serve will deserve full rights.”
The remarks triggered a political explosion — and an open confrontation with Israel’s ultra-Orthodox establishment.
Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman condemned the planned “million-man rally” organized by haredi factions to protest arrests of draft evaders, blasting it as “a demonstration of draft dodgers.”
“They used to say those who don’t study Torah will enlist,” Liberman said. “Now even those who don’t study won’t enlist. They’re spreading incitement — that’s a criminal offense.”
Warning that incitement against IDF enlistment during wartime carries up to 15 years in prison, Liberman added:
“Anyone who says, ‘We’ll die before we enlist,’ is part of a fifth column working against Israel’s security.”
The showdown over the Draft Law has now become a defining moral and national test: will Israel remain a state built on shared sacrifice and duty, or will it allow political deals to erode its founding principle — that every Israeli must defend the Jewish homeland?
