The Supreme Court of Israel ordered that the military must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox Jews in the Era of the War in Gaza
Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the military must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox Jewish men, a decision that threatened to split Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government amid the war in Gaza.
The Supreme Court judges wrote that the burden of inequality is more acute than it has ever been, and needs an advancement of a sustainable solution.
Mr. Netanyahu has called for legislation that would generally maintain the exemption for the religious students. But if he moves ahead with the plan, other members of his government might break ranks amid rising public anger over the government’s strategy for the war in Gaza.
The Supreme Court stated in its ruling that the government could not transfer subsidies to religious schools whose students were no longer allowed to participate in the draft.
“The State of Israel was established in order to be a home for the Jewish people, for whom Torah is the bedrock of their existence. Yitzhak Goldknopf, an ultra-Orthodox minister, said in a statement that the Holy Torah would prevail.
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Porat, who joined voluntarily, thinks most Haredim will choose jail time over enlisting. But after the Hamas attacks, polls did show more community support for soldiers, and Porat thinks more will be open to the idea over time. He cautions that a slow approach is best.
The unanimous decision Tuesday came amid intensified public opposition and strained military resources following the war in Gaza and a Hamas attack on Israel last year.
The religious exemption has been held to be unconstitutional by Israel’s Supreme Court. The court said that the state was carrying out invalid selective enforcement which was a violation of the rule of law.
The court also kept in place a freeze on subsidizes for religious seminaries, or yeshivas, whose young students declined to enlist, a measure it first imposed in March.
The ultra-Orthodox military exemption goes back to Israel’s 1948 founding in the wake of the Holocaust, when protecting the remnant of religious scholars was considered key for a Jewish state. It only applied to 400 people from Orthodox and Haredi families.
Netanyahu ordered his entire political career to preserve the alliance with the ultra-Orthodox, so he could retain his power.
The fight is important to ultra-Orthodox leaders. Haredi means someone who is afraid of God. They don’t want to be involved in the modern world, and fear that exposing young men to it in the military will end their way of life.
Since the surprise Hamas assault Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people in Israel, the country has been fighting on three fronts: A punishing military campaign in Gaza that has killed more than 37,600 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health; stepped up battles in the West Bank and mutual attacks along its northern border with the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah. To support all this, the Israeli military has called up hundreds of thousands of reservists, drafted others early and pushed for longer rotations.
People that are serving will now have to do more. That’s crazy. It will not happen,” says Ron Scherf, co-founder of Brothers and Sisters in Arms. Since the start of the war in Gaza, a group of reserve soldiers has protested against the broad ultra-Orthodox exemption. The group’s position has been supported by surveys which show 70% of Jewish respondents in Israel saying the exemption needs to be changed.
Several thousand ultra-Orthodox people signed up to serve in the military after the Hamas attack. They included Mordechai Porat, a 36-year-old social worker in Bnei Brak, a center of ultra-Orthodox life.
Porat has spent months providing therapy at a nearby military base. But he never wears his green army fatigues in the city and keeps his military dog tag hidden under his shirt. He says that he’s paid a price even though his profile is low.
Source: Israeli Supreme Court rules that the military must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox men
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Yaffe says going to the army will damage their ability to marry. “It will damage their relationship in the family.”
“I think the Israeli society should ask itself, actually, do you want to see them in the army?” she says. Israelis want to see blood. They would like to see them shooting. I don’t believe it’s a good idea.