Top Legal Officials Doubt Deri's Bid to Halt Arrests of Yeshiva Students

Senior legal figures say Shas leader MK Aryeh Deri’s push to end arrests of yeshiva students faces major legal obstacles and is unlikely to survive Supreme Court scrutiny. According to a report on Reshet Bet, they believe the proposal does not meet basic legal standards or proper legislative requirements, and that the Knesset legal advisory team is unlikely to endorse it.

The issue has become central in ties between the ultra-Orthodox parties and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On Sunday, Deri and Degel HaTorah chairman MK Moshe Gafni met Netanyahu and demanded rapid progress on the arrest bill alongside a Basic Law on Torah study. They asked for a clear commitment that a majority would be secured in the Knesset plenum, and warned that without immediate movement the ultra-Orthodox factions would seek to dissolve the Knesset.

After the meeting, Deri and Gafni issued a joint statement saying they had conveyed a “clear demand” on behalf of the leading rabbis to advance both measures immediately, by convening the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and the Knesset Committee this week. They added that if no practical steps were taken, they would support dissolving the Knesset as early as next week. Netanyahu, they said, told them he was committed to passing the laws and would work to advance them quickly.

Behind the scenes, Deri has been promoting a plan to split the draft enlistment law and pass temporary transition rules for one year. The Shas proposal would keep economic sanctions in place but freeze criminal proceedings and stop arrests of Torah students, through a one-year emergency order rather than a new long legislative process. Supporters argue this is needed because no enlistment law can be passed in the coming year before elections and a new government decides on the final model.