The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee held another discussion today (Tuesday) on the draft conscription bill promoted by the committee's chairman, MK Boaz Bismuth.
During the discussion, Yehoshua Shani, chairman of the Heroism Forum and father of Captain Uri Shani, who was killed in fighting in the Gaza Envelope on October 7, spoke.
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""I want to show you a picture," Shani began, "This is a picture of my two sons - Uri, who was a fighter in Givati and a company soldier in the Golani, and Elisha, who is a Hasid and also served in the army. I want you to look at this picture, everyone sitting in the room - both those who represent the Haredi public and those who represent the rest of the public.".
He said that despite ideological differences between his two sons, "there was great love and mutual respect between them.".
Rabbi Yehoshua Shani, father of the late Captain Uri Shani, holds up a picture of Uri and his son Elisha, an ultra-Orthodox, at the draft law hearing, saying that they both served in the army and asking to calm the spirits and act in unity.@ShaniYehoshua pic.twitter.com/VamIQljgeZ
— Shilo Fried🇮🇱 (@shilofreid) December 2, 2025
Shani called on Knesset members not to get caught up in the pursuit of a perfect law: "You are intelligent people, who know how to read reality. If we don't make some kind of breakthrough with the law that is here - we won't get a single more soldier. We will fill the prisons. We will cause the rope, which is already taut, to break.".
He emphasized that we must look to the common future: "I ask, not that you look into my eyes or my sons' eyes, that we look a generation ahead, how we are creating one nation here. This will be a process. Anyone who has or has had adolescent children, or is involved in education, knows that we certainly will not produce combat warriors through force. How can combat warriors be created through sanctions?""
