Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled the state must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox Jewish men into the army. It concluded there is no legal basis to continue the decades-long exemption from military service for students who study the Scriptures in religious schools. The landmark decision could lead to the collapse of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition as Israel continues to wage war in Gaza.
“In the middle of a difficult war, the burden of inequality is felt more acutely than ever – and it requires advancing a sustainable solution to this issue,” the judges wrote in their unanimous ruling.
The historic ruling effectively puts an end to a decades-old system that granted ultra-Orthodox men broad exemptions from military service while maintaining mandatory enlistment for the country’s secular Jewish majority. The arrangement, deemed discriminatory by many Israelis, has created a deep chasm in Israel over who should shoulder the burden of protecting the country.
The court struck down a law that codified exemptions in 2017, but repeated court extensions and government delaying tactics over a replacement system dragged on without a resolution for years. The court has now ruled that in the absence of a law, Israel’s compulsory military service applies to ultra-Orthodox men known as Haredim. It does not apply to ultra-Orthodox women.
Most Jewish men and women serve between two and three years with the military from the age of 18 and then enter the reserve forces. Members of Israel’s 21% Arab minority are exempt, although some do serve.
Military numbers would be boosted in the future with 67,000 Haredi men currently eligible for service and the ultra-Orthodox population expected to surge from 13% of Israel’s 10 million people to 19% by 2035 due to their high birth rates.
After Mr. Netanyahu’s ruling coalition could not agree on an extension to the exemption before it lapsed last year, Israel’s highest court instructed the government to immediately suspend special educational subsidies that support religious students, if those students failed to answer their military call-ups. They had been receiving a monthly stipend of between A$190 and A$320 from the state to study at a yeshiva (seminary), instead of serving in the military.
The threat of a financial shortfall for Haredi schools is a major concern for ultra-Orthodox leaders. With 67,000 student subsidies at risk, many yeshivas “won’t last if they don’t have money from the government. It’s a very big disaster for the Haredim,” asserted Yanki Farber, a prominent Haredi commentator.
Roughly 1,200 Haredi men currently serve voluntarily in the military with more than 2,000 Haredim seeking to join in the first three months of the Gaza war. An immediate call-up has been sent out to 3,000 ultra-Orthodox young men which many are threatening to ignore. In practice, few expect military police officers to start searching Haredi neighbourhoods to arrest seminary students who should be serving in the army. The army is not logistically prepared to absorb large numbers of highly conservative men who, for religious reasons, refuse to serve in units alongside women.
The longstanding military waiver for the ultra-Orthodox has sparked protests in recent months by Israelis angry that they are shouldering the risk of fighting the war in Gaza. Ultra-Orthodox demonstrators have also blocked roads under banners reading “Death before conscription”.
Politically powerful ultra-Orthodox parties which are key partners in the Netanyahu ruling coalition, oppose any change to the current system. The Shas and United Torah Judaism parties believe that keeping their constituents in Torah study is a way of protecting the people of Israel and maintaining their conservative customs. Shas leader Aryeh Deri declared: “There is no power in the world that can cut off the people of Israel from studying the Torah and anyone who has tried this in the past has failed miserably.”
Amid Intense pressure from religious leaders and their constituents, these parties are weighing up whether it’s worthwhile staying in the government. Their withdrawal from the coalition would most likely lead to the collapse of the government, new elections and almost certain defeat for Mr. Netanyahu as Israel’s leader.
Political scientist Gideon Rahat of the bipartisan Israel Democracy Institute observed the court ruling had piled fresh pressure on Mr. Netanyahu who is frantically trying to pass a new conscription law to address an increasingly critical shortage of military personnel in Gaza and on the frontline with Lebanon where Hezbollah poses a major threat. “He will try to buy time and make every effort to remove this issue from the public agenda,” said Mr. Rahat.
