Israeli minister resigns over government’s failure to exempt Haredi Jews from military service

Israeli Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf resigned on Thursday over the government’s failure to pass a law exempting ultra-Orthodox Jews from military service, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said, Anadolu reports. Goldknopf is a member of the Agudat Yisrael Party, which, together with the Degel HaTorah Party, forms the United Torah Judaism (UTJ) alliance that represents the ultra-Orthodox Jews, or Haredi. “The premier had been warned that if no progress had been made on legislation exempting yeshiva students from military service by early June, significant steps would be taken against the coalition,” Goldknopf said in a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “The understandings on enlistment reached by Shas and Degel Hatorah do not live up to the promises made by Netanyahu […]