Ultra-Orthodox conscription bill threatens crisis for Israel’s government

The looming crisis over the recruitment of ultra-Orthodox Jews into the Israeli army threatens to undermine the Israeli government and divide the country.

Public opinion on this issue has shifted dramatically in Israel after two years of war, and this is now perhaps the most explosive political danger facing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Lawmakers are currently considering a bill to end the exemption granted to ultra-Orthodox men enrolled in full-time religious study, which was created when the State of Israel was declared in 1948.

The Israeli Supreme Court ruled that this exemption was illegal nearly 20 years ago. The court formally ended interim arrangements to continue the work last year, forcing the government to begin drafting the community.

About 24,000 draft notices were issued last year, but only about 1,200 ultra-Orthodox — or Haredi — recruits reported to serve, according to military testimony provided by lawmakers.

Tensions are running high in the streets, as lawmakers now debate a new bill to force ultra-Orthodox men into military service alongside other Israeli Jews.

Two ultra-Orthodox politicians were targeted this month by some ultra-Orthodox protesters, who were angry about parliament’s discussion of the proposed law.

Last week, a special border police unit had to rescue military police officers who were targeted by a large crowd of ultra-Orthodox men while trying to arrest a suspected draft evader.

These arrests led to the creation of a new messaging system called “Black Alert” to quickly spread the word across ultra-Orthodox communities and call out protesters to prevent arrests.

Pressure to recruit more ultra-Orthodox also sparked a widespread protest by tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox men in Jerusalem last month – with many seeing the issue as part of a broader struggle over the identity of the Jewish state and the place of religion within it.

“We are a Jewish state,” said Shmuel Auerbach, one of the demonstrators. “You can’t fight Judaism in a Jewish country. It doesn’t work.”

But the changes sweeping Israel have not yet penetrated the walls of the Kesei Rahamim Yeshiva – or Jewish yeshiva – in Bnei Brak, the ultra-Orthodox city on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

Inside the classroom, teenage boys sit in pairs discussing Jewish religious laws, their brightly colored school notebooks standing out against the rows of white T-shirts and little black yarmulkes (traditional yarmulkes).

“Come at one o’clock in the morning, and you will see half the young people studying Torah,” the yeshiva’s president, Rabbi Tzemach Mazoz, told me in what his office said was his first interview with foreign media, or with any female journalist. “By studying the Torah, we protect soldiers wherever they are. This is our army.”

Ultra-Orthodox Jews believe that constant prayer and religious study protect Israel’s soldiers and are as essential to its military success as its tanks and air force. Rabbi Mazouz said that this belief was acceptable to Israeli politicians in the past, but he acknowledged that Israel is changing.

“Today, many in the government and in the Knesset [parliament] They turned away from religion. They say that religious school students are lazy, but this is not true. In Tel Aviv, there are tens of thousands of draft evaders – why don’t they take them in? Why do they attack religious school students?

Despite right-wing attacks, Tel Aviv was one of the largest contributors of soldiers during the war. The pressure felt by Israeli conscripts and reservists over the past two years has shined a spotlight on those who do not serve in the army.

The ultra-Orthodox population of Israel has doubled over the past seven decades, and now represents 14%. What began as an exemption for several hundred religious students became, with the beginning of the Gaza War, a group of approximately 60,000 men excluded from military service.

Opinion polls indicate that support for forced conscription of ultra-Orthodox Jews is on the rise. A July survey by the Israel Democracy Institute found that 85% of non-Haredi Jews – including nearly three-quarters of Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party – support sanctions on those who reject a draft order, with an overwhelming majority in favor of withdrawing benefits, passports, or the right to vote.

“It makes me feel like there are people living in this country without giving anything in return,” an off-duty soldier in Tel Aviv explained.

“I don’t think, no matter how religious you are, [it] “It should be an excuse not to go and serve your country,” said Gabi, a young woman who also lives in Tel Aviv. “If you were born here, I find it absolutely ridiculous that you would want to excuse yourself from Torah study all day long.”

Support for extending the project is also coming from religious Jews outside the Haredi community, such as Dorit Barak, who lives near the yeshiva in Bnei Brak and points out non-Haredi religious Jews who serve in the army while also studying Torah.

“I am very angry that ultra-Orthodox Jews do not serve in the army,” she said. “This is unfair. I also believe in the Torah, but there is a saying in Hebrew – ‘Zefra and Sefa’.” [The Book and the Sword] – Meaning the Torah and guns together. “This is the way forward until days of peace.”

Ms. Barak runs a small memorial in Bnei Brak to local soldiers, both religious and secular, killed in battle during Israel’s wars. Long columns of faces emerge from the black-and-white photographs that line the back wall.

The last soldier from the neighborhood died in 1983, a sign, she says, of Israel’s demographic shift.

“I have completely changed,” she said. “When I was a child, about half the population was non-religious, and a small percentage were ultra-Orthodox. Today, almost everyone is ultra-Orthodox, and since 1983 no soldier has been killed, because no one serves in the army.”

There are special army and police units for a small number of ultra-Orthodox men who currently choose to serve. But Benjamin Netanyahu said at the opening of Parliament’s winter session last October that the new draft law would see the recruitment of 10,000 yeshiva students within two years – something he described as a “true revolution.”

The ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties are crucial allies in Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, as well as in his bid for political survival during his trial on corruption charges, which Netanyahu denies. One of the main demands in exchange for their loyalty is the continued exemption of their supporters from military conscription.

This issue has brought down Netanyahu’s governments twice in the past.

The bill now passing through Parliament is an attempt to find a way to resolve this issue, or at least buy time before elections scheduled for next year.

“A balanced law, a good law, a good law for the army, good for yeshiva students, good for the people of Israel [and] Representative Boaz Bismuth, a Netanyahu loyalist charged with sponsoring the bill in Parliament, said, “It is good for the state.”

But several lawmakers, including members of the ruling coalition, said this week that the current draft of the bill was too lenient, and that neither they nor the courts would approve it.

The current text appears to largely maintain the status quo by recruiting only hard-line men who do not study full-time religiously, and lifting all penalties for draft evaders once they reach the age of 26.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid, who heads the centrist Yesh Atid party, described the draft text as a “disgrace” and “betrayal,” and vowed not to pass it.

Even some within Netanyahu’s Likud Party refused to support him.

Tzachi Hanegbi, the former national security adviser who was recently fired by Netanyahu, described the move as an “evasion tool.” [that] “It puts the future of the country at risk,” he said, adding that he and his four sons spent a long time in the army.

Israel’s ultra-Orthodox parties have been divided over whether to bow to growing pressure for change, but in a move seen as evidence of the bill’s leniency, the ultra-Orthodox Degil HaTorah party – part of the ruling coalition – is said to be considering supporting the current text.

Asked whether it would be better to support this version of the bill, or risk bringing down Benjamin Netanyahu altogether, Rabbi Mazuz avoided giving a specific answer.

“The world is guided by God,” he said. “when [US President Donald] Trump did not win a second term [in 2020]I and many millions have been hurt. Why did God do this?

“But he knew the future, and he knew Hamas’ plan. God wanted Trump [in power] “During this period,” he added, referring to the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which led to the outbreak of the Gaza War.

Rabbi Mazuz pointed to the religious manuscripts on his desk that were hundreds of years old, he said.

“The Israeli prisons among us are not like those in Russia, thank God. We will get through this too. But I hope we will not come to that.”

The Haredi way of life has changed little in centuries, but they and their political allies are now locked in a debate over what it means to be Jewish and Israeli, and whether that means fighting for Israel, or fighting for their way of life against the demands of modern warfare.

Additional reporting by Oren Rosenfeld and Samantha Granville