Will the ultra-Orthodox population soon join the Israeli army?

While the Israeli government has yet to consider a new law, Israel’s ultra-Orthodox population can be recruited into the army from Monday, April 1. The law that exempted ultra-Orthodox Jews from military service has expired. The issue has been dividing Israel for years, and has flared up again due to the Gaza war.

Opponents of the exemption believe that compulsory military service should be borne by everyone. In Israel, military service is compulsory from the age of 18. Men serve in the army for three years, women for two years. In recent months, hundreds of thousands of reservists have been called up in connection with the war in Gaza.

Haredim, ultra-Orthodox Jews, have been around since Israel’s founding in 1948 exempt from military service. Palestinian residents of Israel are also not required to join the army. Then-Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion decided to grant haredim – then a very small minority – an exemption so that they could devote themselves to studying the Torah in yeshivas, religious schools.

The haredim now make up about 13 percent of the population. From a few hundred in the 1950s, the number of exemptions grew to 66,000 last year. Many haredim see participation in the army as a threat to their way of life. Some are not Zionist and do not recognize Israel as a state.

For a growing group of Israelis, it is troubling that yeshiva students receive government support, while the rest of the population serves in the army. According to a recent survey by the Israel Democracy Institute, 70 percent of Israelis want the law exempting the ultra-Orthodox population to change.

Contrary to law

As early as 1998, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the exemption for ultra-Orthox Jews was against the law and discriminated against those who are conscripted. Such a ruling came again in 2017.

Due to the five elections in recent years, which made the implementation of a new law difficult, the government was repeatedly postponed by the court to come up with a new policy.

The current exemption law expired last summer, but has been temporarily extended since then. The government had been given until the end of March to present a plan for the recruitment of the haredim. Because there is no definitive plan yet for the new policy regarding the exemption, the Supreme Court ruled last week that the subsidy for haredi yeshivas will be scaled back as of April 1, unless students serve in the military.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing a crisis in his coalition, which is dependent on ultra-Orthodox parties. Since the 1990s, these parties have repeatedly blocked every attempt to adjust the exceptional position of their supporters. These parties now also want to continue the exemption. The possible recruitment of haredim, which would theoretically be possible as of April 1, could mean the end of the coalition.

There is also division within the war cabinet. Benny Gantz has threatened that his National Unity Party would leave the emergency government if an exemption law is passed. On X https://twitter.com/gantzbe/status/1773417774984900921 he that “what really matters is our need for soldiers during a difficult war, and the need of our society for everyone to share in the right to serve the country.” Yoav Gallant of Netanyahu’s Likud party, defense minister and member of the war cabinet, also said he would not support a bill to exempt haredim.

‘Abroad’

In recent weeks, groups of haredim demonstrated against the possible change to the exemption, including at army recruitment offices, and blocked the highway, drawing a heavy police crackdown.

“If they force us to join the army, we will all go abroad,” Yitzhak Yosef, the Sephardic chief rabbi, said during a livestream. Moreover, he said that the success of the army depends on the study of Torah. Some ultra-orthoxes believe that the study of Torah is as important as military service.

The leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, Aryeh Deri, wrote in one https://twitter.com/ariyederi/status/1773419545794904457?s=20 on the Supreme Court’s decision to withdraw support for yeshivas, saying it “destroys the foundations of the Jewish identity of the State of Israel.”

Nevertheless, there is a growing group of ultra-Orthodox who are positive about conscription. Approximately 1,200 haredim already serve in the army on a voluntary basis every year.

While the government is considering the exemption for the haredim, there is also a bill from the Ministry of Defense to expand conscription, to the dissatisfaction of veterans, among others. This law would expand statutory military service for men from 32 months to the full three years and raise the age of reservists to 45 and officers to 50. Now that the Gaza war has been raging for almost six months and violence between Israel and Hezbollah is intensifying, the army is now struggling with a shortage of soldiers.

If the exemption expires on Monday, it remains to be seen whether the recruitment and training of haredim will accelerate. However, the army already has special programs in place, which take into account, among other things, gender segregation, dietary requirements and time for prayers and religious study.

To share

Email the editor