🔗 Share this article

An impending political storm over conscripting Haredi men into the military is threatening to undermine the governing coalition and dividing the nation.

Popular sentiment on the matter has undergone a sea change in Israel in the wake of two years of conflict, and this is now arguably the most explosive political risk facing the Prime Minister.

The Judicial Conflict

Lawmakers are currently considering a proposal to abolish the special status awarded to ultra-Orthodox men engaged in yeshiva learning, created when the modern Israel was established in 1948.

The deferment was struck down by the nation's top court almost 20 years ago. Interim measures to continue it were officially terminated by the judiciary last year, pressuring the cabinet to begin drafting the ultra-Orthodox population.

Some 24,000 draft notices were delivered last year, but merely about 1,200 ultra-Orthodox - or Haredi - draftees showed up, according to military testimony shared with lawmakers.

Friction Erupt Onto the Streets

Friction is spilling onto the city centers, with elected officials now discussing a new legislative proposal to force ultra-Orthodox men into national service alongside other Jewish citizens.

A pair of ultra-Orthodox lawmakers were targeted this month by radical elements, who are incensed with parliament's discussion of the draft legislation.

And last week, a special Border Police unit had to assist enforcement personnel who were surrounded by a big group of community members as they attempted to detain a man avoiding service.

These arrests have prompted the establishment of a new alert system dubbed "Emergency Alert" to spread word quickly through the religious sector and summon activists to stop detentions from occurring.

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

A Realm Apart

Yet the transformations blowing through Israel have not reached the walls of the Torah academy in Bnei Brak, an ultra-Orthodox city on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

In the learning space, teenage boys learn in partnerships to debate Judaism's religious laws, their vividly colored school notebooks popping against the rows of light-colored shirts and head coverings.

"Come at one in the morning, and you will see many of the students are engaged in learning," the head of the academy, the spiritual guide, explained. "Via dedicated learning, we shield the military personnel wherever they are. This is our army."

Haredi Jews maintain that continuous prayer and Torah learning protect Israel's armed forces, and are as crucial to its military success as its tanks and air force. That belief was accepted by Israel's politicians in the previous eras, the rabbi said, but he admitted that Israel was changing.

Growing Popular Demand

The ultra-Orthodox population has grown substantially its percentage of the nation's citizens over the past seven decades, and now constitutes a sizable minority. What began as an exemption for a few hundred yeshiva attendees turned into, by the start of the 2023 war, a group of approximately 60,000 men not subject to the national service.

Surveys indicate approval of ending the exemption is rising. Research in July found that 85% of secular and traditional Jews - including almost three-quarters in Netanyahu's own right-wing Likud party - backed penalties for those who ignored a draft order, with a clear majority in approving cutting state subsidies, passports, or the electoral participation.

"It makes me feel there are citizens who reside in this country without serving," one serviceman in Tel Aviv commented.

"It is my belief, no matter how devout, [it] should be an reason not to fulfill your duty to your state," added a Tel Aviv resident. "As a citizen by birth, I find it somewhat unreasonable that you want to avoid service just to engage in religious study all day."

Perspectives from Inside Bnei Brak

Support for ending the exemption is also coming from traditional Jews outside the ultra-Orthodox sector, like one local resident, who lives near the academy and notes religious Zionists who do perform national service while also studying Torah.

"I am frustrated that ultra-Orthodox people don't enlist," she said. "It is unjust. I am also committed to the Jewish law, but there's a teaching in Hebrew - 'Safra and Saifa' – it signifies the scripture and the weapons together. That is the path, until the arrival of peace."

She manages a local tribute in her city to fallen servicemen, both observant and non-observant, who were fallen in war. Lines of faces {