“I couldn’t just sit there and continue to argue and see they’re not changing their minds,” Haskel told the Post about the marathon discussions on the bill taking place in the Knesset.

After three days on the road and over 80 kilometers on foot, Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel (New Hope) spoke to The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday about her march this week in protest of the government’s haredi (ultra-Orthodox) draft bill, which she said endangers Israel’s future.

Haskel embarked on a three-day journey from the central Israeli city of Kfar Saba to Jerusalem in protest of the current outline of the haredi conscription bill.

“I couldn’t just sit there and continue to argue and see they’re not changing their minds,” Haskel told the Post about the marathon discussions on the bill taking place in the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

That’s where her journey ended after three days on foot and sleeping in tents – she arrived at the Knesset panel debating the bill as the last stop on her march on Tuesday.

Speaking on what prompted her to undertake the march, the deputy foreign minister warned that there are severe issues with the current draft bill’s outline.

“The current draft law is bad for the economy, it erodes social cohesion, and worst of all, it endangers the security of the state,” she said.

Haskel began her trek on Sunday, walking along the highways with Israeli flags in an attempt to raise awareness.

“ I was doing interviews with a flag in my hand, walking from my home, 85 kilometers – like pilgrims, thousands of years ago – straight to our capital in Jerusalem,” she said.

“To our parliament, with a flag in one hand, and my phone in the other hand.”

The march garnered numerous supporters who reached out to her, motivating her to keep going throughout the three days.

“It was so inspiring because all along the way, I received so manymessages from our soldiers who said they wished they could come, but they’re now in Lebanon or Gaza. And they thanked me – but I need to thank them,” Haskel said.

“They just left everything, and went to the front lines, risked their lives, in order to protect my family, and my three little girls. And, you know, that gave me so much strength to keep going,” the minister said.

“Now, my legs are hurt, and they’re injured – and I kept on walking, and I was just thinking about them.”

Memorable moments along Haskel's march

Among those who joined her was the head of the Reservists Party, former communications minister Yoaz Hendel. Former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot (Yashar! Party) also met her along the way.

Former Israeli spokesperson Eylon Levy later joined her in Jerusalem as they walked the streets together.

Speaking on some of the most memorable moments of the journey, Haskel told the Post about a bereaved father who lost his son in combat and came to march with her.

“He came, and he joined, and we had a very intense conversation about this bill, and what it meant to the family, to the orphans, and loved ones.”

Haskel said the most memorable moment was when she passed by a yeshiva on the march, while entering Jerusalem after the three-day journey.

“From this yeshiva, there were little children who were yelling at us, seeing us all marching with the flags, some in their reserves [uniforms], and those children were yelling, ‘We will die and not be recruited.’

“And that really broke my heart, after a journey of 80 kilometers.”

“I was just a few kilometers from the Knesset, and hearing them like that, knowing… our friends, our family members, they are dying… because they’re [the ones] being recruited,” Haskel said.

“It’s like we’re living in two separate worlds.”

Critics of the new outline of the bill that was presented by Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairperson MK Boaz Bismuth (Likud), argue that it fails to enforce haredi conscription, stalls time, and is a political solution that attempts to appease the haredi parties to return to the government after they resigned in protest of an earlier version of the bill in July.

Meanwhile, the IDF has repeatedly warned that it urgently lacks manpower in combat units, especially after over two years of war.

"These two years of war have took us to the limit, and we say to our brothers, we need you," Haskel continued.

"The IDF said, 'we need more manpower,'" she explained, adding that without it, the military "won't have the troops for all security missions that are needed."

"Probably ten years from now, when our enemies are going to rise up... again, in a multilateral front, are we going to be prepared?"