Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox political parties are reported to be in “shock” following last week’s Supreme Court ruling that around 13,000 previously exempt religious students of army age must be recruited into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) starting from April 1.
After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition could not agree on an extension to the exemption before it lapsed, 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. So from this month, the state can begin drafting Ultra-Orthodox men known as Haredim. The court also ordered the state to present an affidavit by the end of April explaining what steps it will be taking to follow through on the ruling.
Military conscription has long been an issue of contention in a country at continual war with its surrounding enemies since its independence in 1948. Haredi men have been exempt from Israel’s mandatory conscription of all 18-year-olds requiring young Israeli men to serve for nearly three years and then enter the reserve forces, while women serve for two years.
As Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox community has grown to make up 13% of the nation’s population, so has resentment and anger over privileges for Haredi students who receive 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 Jerusalem Post reported that the Hamas attack on Israel six months ago exposed “Israel’s need for a much larger army, which means the country no longer has the luxury to grant deferments to 13,000 able-bodied young men.”
Barak Seir, a former adviser to Ariyeh Deri who leads the Shas Haredi party which contributes 11 seats to the Netanyahu coalition government which has a slim majority of 64 seats in the 120-seat Knesset (parliament), observed: “From the moment of the court ruling, the Haredi parties have been in utter shock. They were stunned by the ruling that funding will stop immediately. This is the worst situation the Haredim have ever been in.”
Haredi representatives and supporters in the coalition have threatened to leave the government which could force the country into a new election which Mr. Netanyahu is most unlikely to win based on current polling. He’s in a no-win situation because some secular parties in his coalition have also threatened to quit the government if the court order is not carried out. Some Ultra-Orthodox leaders have said that their parties will remain in the coalition while they wait to see what happens.
19-year-old Haredi Yehuda Cohen told The Guardian: “I will never enter the army. For us, studying the Torah is everything. We live by the word of God, who is above everything. We will follow the directions of our rabbis. Our community members in the government will fight for us. You see, studying the Torah, especially in these days of conflict, is a way for us to fight the war.”
Moshe Roth, a Haredi lawmaker, agrees. “This is a make it or break it. The only way to protect the Torah and to keep it alive, as it has been for the last 3,500 years, is by having yeshivas” he declared.
The threat of a financial shortfall for Haredi schools is a major concern for Ultra-Orthodox leaders. The New York Times reports that court documents suggested that up to roughly 60,000 student subsidies could be at risk — a significant percentage of the seminary system’s budget. Dozens of 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 1,000 Haredi men currently serve voluntarily in the military — less than one percent of all soldiers — but more than 2,000 Haredim sought to join the military in the first 10 weeks of the war, according to military statistics. 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, will refuse to serve in units alongside women.
The New York Times speculates the Haredi leadership could yet decide to stay in the coalition: “It can wield more influence inside a right-wing coalition than by triggering elections that could be won by a more centrist and secular alliance in which it might play no part,” the newspaper wrote.
It added that; “A new Israeli government led by centrists is unlikely to take a markedly different approach to the war in Gaza, but it may be more open to allowing the Palestinian leadership in the Israeli-occupied West Bank to play a bigger role in Gaza after the war. That arrangement could create a more conducive environment for Israel to normalise relations with Saudi Arabia, which had edged closer to sealing diplomatic ties with Israel before the war broke out.”
