MK Sharren Haskel filed a request with the Knesset Committee on Tuesday to split off from her faction and become a lone lawmaker, a day after resigning as deputy foreign minister over the coalition's law freezing arrests of Haredi draft evaders.
In a sharply worded letter to faction chairman and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, Haskel wrote that he had lied to her and to the people of Israel, and that she was resigning her position as his deputy. The letter marks an escalation from her resignation a day earlier, when she said, "I feel that I can no longer support a government that harms the security of the country during wartime," according to the Jerusalem Post.
Haskel's resignation as deputy foreign minister came immediately after the Knesset passed legislation halting the arrest and prosecution of Haredi men who avoid military conscription. The Times of Israel reported that the law grants tens of thousands of draft evaders immunity from arrest until November 30, and extends that protection going forward, effectively cementing continued mass non-enlistment among Haredi men. The bill passed by a narrow margin, with the Times of Israel reporting a vote of 58 in favor and 54 opposed, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu present for part of the debate but absent from the vote itself after being met with shouts of "Shame" from the opposition.
Haskel was among a small group of coalition lawmakers who broke ranks to vote against the bill, alongside Likud MKs Yuli Edelstein and Dan Illouz and Religious Zionism's Moshe Solomon. She had been an outspoken critic of the legislative push in the weeks leading up to the vote, telling the Jerusalem Post last month that the legislation amounted to "backstabbing" soldiers serving during wartime and calling it "absolutely morally wrong."
