🔗 Share this article

An impending political storm over enlisting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the military is jeopardizing the governing coalition and splitting the nation.

Public opinion on the question has shifted dramatically in Israel after two years of hostilities, and this is now possibly the most volatile political challenge facing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Constitutional Battle

Lawmakers are now debating a proposal to end the special status given to yeshiva scholars dedicated to yeshiva learning, established when the State of Israel was founded in 1948.

This arrangement was ruled illegal by Israel's High Court of Justice in the early 2000s. Stopgap solutions to extend it were formally ended by the judiciary last year, compelling the government to commence conscription of the ultra-Orthodox population.

Roughly 24,000 call-up papers were delivered last year, but just approximately 1,200 men from the community showed up, according to army data shared with lawmakers.

Strains Erupt Into Public View

Tensions are erupting onto the public squares, with parliamentarians now discussing a new draft bill to compel ultra-Orthodox men into military service alongside other Jewish citizens.

Two Haredi politicians were confronted this month by hardline activists, who are incensed with the Knesset's deliberations of the bill.

In a recent incident, a elite police squad had to rescue Military Police officers who were attacked by a sizeable mob of Haredi men as they attempted to detain a suspected draft-evader.

These enforcement actions have led to the development of a new alert system dubbed "Dark Alert" to rapidly disseminate information through the religious sector and mobilize activists to block enforcement from occurring.

"Israel is a Jewish nation," remarked an activist. "It's impossible to battle religious practice in a nation founded on Jewish identity. It is a contradiction."

An Environment Apart

But the shifts blowing through Israel have not yet breached the confines of the religious seminary in Bnei Brak, an ultra-Orthodox city on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

Inside the classroom, young students sit in pairs to debate the Torah, their brightly coloured school notebooks standing out against the lines of light-colored shirts and traditional skullcaps.

"Come at one in the morning, and you will see half the guys are studying Torah," the leader of the yeshiva, Rabbi Tzemach Mazuz, noted. "Through religious study, we safeguard the military personnel in the field. This is our army."

Ultra-Orthodox believe that unceasing devotion and spiritual pursuit protect Israel's armed forces, and are as essential to its security as its conventional forces. That belief was acknowledged by Israel's politicians in the earlier decades, he said, but he acknowledged that public attitudes are shifting.

Growing Popular Demand

The ultra-Orthodox population has more than doubled its proportion of the country's people over the since the state's founding, and now constitutes a sizable minority. A policy that originated as an exception for several hundred religious students evolved into, by the beginning of the Gaza war, a group of some 60,000 men not subject to the national service.

Opinion polls suggest approval of drafting the Haredim is rising. Research in July showed that 85% of secular and traditional Jews - encompassing a significant majority in his own coalition allies - backed penalties for those who declined a draft order, with a clear majority in approving cutting state subsidies, passports, or the right to vote.

"It seems to me there are citizens who reside in this nation without giving anything back," one serviceman in Tel Aviv commented.

"I don't think, regardless of piety, [it] should be an justification not to go and serve your state," added Gabby. "Being a native, I find it somewhat unreasonable that you want to opt out just to study Torah all day."

Views from Within the Community

Support for ending the exemption is also expressed by religious Jews outside the Haredi community, like a Bnei Brak inhabitant, who is a neighbor of the yeshiva and notes observant but non-Haredi Jews who do enlist in the army while also maintaining their faith.

"It makes me angry that the Haredim don't perform military service," she said. "It is unjust. I too follow the Torah, but there's a saying in Hebrew - 'The Book and the Sword' – it signifies the scripture and the defense together. This is the correct approach, until the days of peace."

She manages a small memorial in Bnei Brak to local soldiers, both from all backgrounds, who were killed in battle. Rows of images {