🔗 Share this article

An impending crisis over drafting Haredi men into the Israel Defense Forces is threatening to undermine the administration and dividing the country.

The public mood on the issue has changed profoundly in Israel after two years of conflict, and this is now possibly the most volatile political risk facing Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Legal Struggle

Legislators are reviewing a proposal to terminate the special status granted to ultra-Orthodox men engaged in Torah study, instituted when the State of Israel was founded in 1948.

The deferment was declared unconstitutional by Israel's High Court of Justice almost 20 years ago. Interim measures to extend it were officially terminated by the bench last year, pressuring the cabinet to begin drafting the community.

Roughly 24,000 call-up papers were issued last year, but just approximately 1,200 ultra-Orthodox - or Haredi - draftees enlisted, according to army data presented to lawmakers.

Strains Boil Over Into Public View

Tensions are erupting onto the public squares, with elected officials now deliberating a new conscription law to force ultra-Orthodox men into army duty alongside other Israeli Jews.

A pair of ultra-Orthodox lawmakers were targeted this month by hardline activists, who are incensed with the Knesset's deliberations of the draft legislation.

And last week, a specialized force had to rescue enforcement personnel who were surrounded by a sizeable mob of community members as they sought to apprehend a suspected draft-evader.

These arrests have led to the development of a new communication network dubbed "Black Alert" to spread word quickly through Haredi neighborhoods and mobilize protesters to prevent arrests from occurring.

"This is a Jewish state," said one protester. "You can't fight against the Jewish faith in a nation founded on Jewish identity. It is a contradiction."

A Realm Set Aside

Yet the changes sweeping across Israel have not yet breached the confines of the religious seminary in an ultra-Orthodox city, an religious community on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

In the learning space, scholars sit in pairs to discuss Jewish law, their vividly colored notepads standing out against the seats of white shirts and small black kippahs.

"Arrive late at night, and you will see many of the students are engaged in learning," the head of the academy, a senior rabbi, noted. "Through religious study, we protect the military personnel in the field. This is how we contribute."

Ultra-Orthodox believe that constant study and Torah learning protect Israel's military, and are as vital to its military success as its conventional forces. That belief was acknowledged by previous governments in the earlier decades, he said, but he conceded that public attitudes are shifting.

Growing Public Pressure

This religious sector has grown substantially its proportion of the country's people over the last seventy years, and now represents 14%. A policy that originated as an exception for a few hundred religious students became, by the start of the 2023 war, a group of approximately 60,000 men not subject to the draft.

Opinion polls suggest support for ending the exemption is rising. Research in July found that 85% of secular and traditional Jews - encompassing almost three-quarters in Netanyahu's own right-wing Likud party - backed consequences for those who ignored a enlistment summons, with a solid consensus in supporting cutting state subsidies, travel documents, or the electoral participation.

"It seems to me there are people who are part of this country without giving anything back," one military member in Tel Aviv said.

"In my view, no matter how devout, [it] should be an justification not to fulfill your duty to your country," stated a young woman. "As a citizen by birth, I find it quite ridiculous that you want to avoid service just to engage in religious study all day."

Views from Within Bnei Brak

Support for broadening conscription is also found among religious Jews not part of the Haredi community, like Dorit Barak, who is a neighbor of the seminary and highlights non-Haredi religious Jews who do perform national service while also engaging in religious study.

"I am frustrated that the Haredim don't serve in the army," she said. "It is unjust. I too follow the Torah, but there's a proverb in Jewish tradition - 'The Book and the Sword' – it represents the scripture and the defense together. This is the correct approach, until the days of peace."

The resident maintains a small memorial in the neighborhood to soldiers from the area, both observant and non-observant, who were fallen in war. Long columns of faces {