A Crisis Threatens in Israel Regarding Haredi Conscription Legislation

An impending crisis over enlisting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the Israel Defense Forces is posing a risk to the governing coalition and dividing the state.

The public mood on the matter has undergone a sea change in Israel in the wake of two years of war, and this is now possibly the most divisive political risk facing Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Judicial Struggle

Legislators are now debating a proposal to end the special status granted to yeshiva scholars engaged in yeshiva learning, created when the modern Israel was established in 1948.

That exemption was struck down by the Supreme Court almost 20 years ago. Stopgap solutions to maintain it were finally concluded by the bench last year, compelling the administration to commence conscription of the Haredi sector.

Roughly 24,000 draft notices were sent out last year, but just approximately 1,200 men from the community enlisted, according to army data shared with lawmakers.

Strains Spill Into Violence

Friction is spilling onto the streets, with parliamentarians now deliberating a new legislative proposal to require ultra-Orthodox men into national service together with other Israeli Jews.

A pair of ultra-Orthodox lawmakers were harassed this month by radical elements, who are enraged with the legislative debate of the proposed law.

And last week, a special Border Police unit had to rescue Military Police officers who were surrounded by a large crowd of Haredi men as they tried to arrest a alleged conscription dodger.

Such incidents have led to the development of a new communication network dubbed "Black Alert" to rapidly disseminate information through ultra-Orthodox communities and call out protesters to stop detentions from taking place.

"Israel is a Jewish nation," remarked an activist. "You can't fight against Judaism in a Jewish country. That is untenable."

A World Separate

However the transformations blowing through Israel have not reached the environment of the religious seminary in an ultra-Orthodox city, an Haredi enclave on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

Inside the classroom, teenage boys study together to debate the Torah, their vividly colored notepads standing out against the rows of white shirts and small black kippahs.

"Come at one in the morning, and you will see half the guys are engaged in learning," the dean of the seminary, Rabbi Tzemach Mazuz, explained. "Through religious study, we protect the military personnel in the field. This constitutes our service."

Ultra-Orthodox believe that continuous prayer and religious study defend Israel's soldiers, and are as crucial to its military success as its conventional forces. This tenet was endorsed by previous governments in the earlier decades, the rabbi said, but he acknowledged that public attitudes are shifting.

Rising Popular Demand

This religious sector has grown substantially its proportion of the nation's citizens over the since the state's founding, and now accounts for 14%. An exemption that started as an exemption for a small number of yeshiva attendees turned into, by the start of the 2023 war, a cohort of approximately 60,000 men left out of the conscription.

Opinion polls show support for ultra-Orthodox conscription is rising. Research in July found that a large majority of secular and traditional Jews - even a significant majority in the Prime Minister's political base - supported consequences for those who refused a enlistment summons, with a solid consensus in approving withdrawing benefits, passports, or the right to vote.

"It seems to me there are individuals who live in this country without serving," one military member in Tel Aviv explained.

"I don't think, 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 exempt yourself just to engage in religious study all day."

Perspectives from Within a Religious City

Advocacy of ending the exemption is also found among religious Jews not part of the ultra-Orthodox sector, like a Bnei Brak inhabitant, who resides close to the academy and notes observant but non-Haredi Jews who do serve in the military while also engaging in religious study.

"I am frustrated that this community don't serve in the army," she said. "This creates inequality. I also believe in the Torah, but there's a saying in Hebrew - 'Safra and Saifa' – it signifies the Torah and the guns together. That's the way forward, until the days of peace."

She runs a small memorial in Bnei Brak to local soldiers, both religious and secular, who were fallen in war. Rows of faces {