JERUSALEM – With Israel still at war in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition may fall apart as a result of the Supreme Court of Israel’s unanimous judgment on Tuesday that the military must start enlisting ultra-Orthodox men for mandatory service.
The landmark decision essentially ends a long-standing scheme that gave ultra-Orthodox men wide exemptions from military duty while keeping enrollment required for the majority of secular Jews in the nation. Critics of the arrangement claim it is discriminatory, and it has caused a rift within Israel’s Jewish majority about who should bear the responsibility for national security.
A statute that codified exemptions was overturned by the court in 2017, but the government’s attempts to delay a successor and several judicial extensions caused the matter to be delayed for years. The court decided that Israel’s mandatory military duty applies to ultra-Orthodox citizens just like it does to everyone else in the absence of a law.
Ultra-Orthodox men have traditionally been excluded from the conscription, which is mandatory for the majority of Jewish men and women.
A split that has grown during the eight-month-old conflict as the military has called up tens of thousands of soldiers and claimed it needs all the personnel it can obtain is because the secular public has long been incensed about these exemptions. Since Hamas’ strike on October 7, more than 600 troops have lost their lives.
Powerful ultra-Orthodox political parties, important allies in Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, are against any alterations to the current structure. If the exemptions are removed, they might leave the coalition, which would bring down the government and probably force fresh elections at a time when public support for it has declined.
Netanyahu might find it difficult to postpone the issue any longer or to pass legislation to reinstate the exemptions in the current climate. During the hearing, attorneys for the government argued that making ultra-Orthodox men enlist would “tear Israeli society apart.” Netanyahu’s staff did not immediately provide a response.
The court’s ruling coincides with a delicate moment, as the Gaza War enters its ninth month and the toll of fallen soldiers keeps rising.
The state was engaging in “invalid selective enforcement, which represents a serious violation of the rule of law and the principle according to which all individuals are equal before the law,” the court ruled in its decision.
The number of ultra-Orthodox that should be drafted was not specified, although the military has stated that 3,000 recruits can be made this year.
According to Shuki Friedman, a specialist in religion and politics and the vice-president of the Jewish People Policy Institute, a think tank in Jerusalem, some 66,000 ultra-Orthodox men are currently eligible for enlisting.
The military is anticipated to start obeying the verdict of Israel’s top court as soon as it devises a strategy for enlisting thousands of people from a populace that is adamantly opposed to serving in the armed forces. The army did not respond right away.
The court further decided that there should be no further state funding for seminaries that exempted ultra-Orthodox men attend. Earlier this year, the court placed a temporary freeze on the seminary budgets.
Head of one of the coalition’s ultra-Orthodox parties, Cabinet minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, referred to the decision as “extremely unfortunate and disappointing” in a post on the social media site X. He omitted to mention if his party will overthrow the administration.
The Jewish people, whose existence is based on the Torah, were to have a place to call home when the state of Israel was formed. The sacred Torah shall stand the test,” he wrote.
The ultra-Orthodox consider their commitment to studying religion full-time as a means of defending the state. Many worry that closer adherence to the faith may be lost as a result of more military engagement with secular culture.
Men who follow the ultra-Orthodox faith attend specialized seminaries that prioritize religious studies over secular subjects like physics, arithmetic, and English. Some who disagree with them claim they are unfit to join the military or the civilian workforce.
Because women are not expected to participate in combat forces, religious women typically receive exemptions that are less contentious.
The decision now creates the conditions for increasing division over the draft issue inside the coalition. Legislators who identify as ultra-Orthodox are expected to encounter strong pressure from both their constituents and religious authorities, forcing them to decide if it is worth it for them to stay in government.
According to Friedman, the ultra-Orthodox “know that their public is asking ‘why did we vote for you?’ while also understanding that they don’t have a better political alternative.”
Years of legal challenges to the exemptions have resulted in a number of court rulings finding the system to be unfair. However, Israeli authorities have repeatedly stagnated due to pressure from ultra-Orthodox groups.
The government was urged to recruit all qualified seminary students right away by the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, which has spearheaded the opposition to the exemptions. According to Tomer Naor, the chairman of the group’s legal department, “this is their legal and moral duty, especially in light of the complex security situation and the urgent need for personnel” in the army.
Two ultra-Orthodox parties that are against raising voter enlistment support Netanyahu’s government. The seasoned Israeli leader has made an effort to follow the court’s decisions while juggling his coalition’s needs. However, he frequently yields to the pet concerns of smaller parties due to his tiny majority of 64 seats in the 120-member parliament.
Theoretically, the government may attempt to design legislation to reinstate the exemptions, but given the court’s decision, this will be politically difficult.
The legislature is running out of time because the Knesset is about to adjourn for summer vacation, and several moderate members of the administration have stated they will only back a bill that includes a significant number of ultra-Orthodox. That may compel the armed forces to start recruiting religious men before any new legislation is enacted.
Netanyahu has been advocating for a measure that called for limited enlistment of ultra-Orthodox people, which was put out by a previous government in 2022 in an effort to address the problem.
However, detractors claim that the bill was drafted prior to the conflict and falls short in addressing the urgent need for additional manpower as the army works to keep its forces in the Gaza Strip and get ready for a possible conflict with Hezbollah, a Lebanese organization that has been at war with Israel since the Gaza War broke out last October.
The ultra-Orthodox community is the fastest-growing demographic group, with 4% growth per year due to their high birthrate. The State Control Committee of the Israeli parliament estimates that 13,000 ultra-Orthodox boys reach the age of 18 and are eligible for conscription each year, but less than 10% of them actually enlist.