The law was advanced as part of a deal Netanyahu brokered with ultra-Orthodox party leaders in exchange for support for overhaul legislation - and despite the attorney general's office arguing that it served no clear purpose

Critics say the bill could preserve state benefits for yeshiva students who avoid military service amid the IDF’s manpower shortage.

The bill originally equated study of the Jewish Torah with military service, which could be used to justify ultra-Orthodox men's exclusion from mandatory enlistment. The relevant…