The Israeli Government has concluded plans to draft 1,000 members of the ultra-Orthodox community popularly called Jews, into the military, to fortify the army in their battle to protect the country’s sovereignty.
The move follows a Supreme Court ruling that ordered the defence ministry to end the longstanding exemption from military service for Jewish seminary students under arrangements made soon after the birth of the state of Israel when their numbers were tiny.
The move has been bitterly opposed by the two religious parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, placing severe strains on the right-wing coalition formed after elections in 2022.
Leaders of the rapidly growing ultra-Orthodox community said that forcing seminary students to serve alongside secular Israelis including women risks destroying their identity as religious Jews. Some rabbis have urged anyone in their community who receives call-up orders to burn them.
Following the first set of call-ups, further notices for an initial total of 3,000 ultra-Orthodox conscripts are expected to be sent out in coming weeks.
The government is still trying to pass a conscription law that would potentially create some limited compromise and resolve the issue before it threatens the stability of the coalition.
However, with Israeli troops still fighting in Gaza, more than nine months after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, and a growing threat of war in Lebanon, pressure from the army and secular Israelis to spread the burden of serving in the military has grown sharply.
Israelis are bound by law to serve in the military from the age of 18 for 24-32 months. Members of Israel’s 21-percent Arab minority are mostly exempt, though some do serve.
Not all of the Haredim refuse to serve and the Israeli Defence Forces have created a number of units specially for the ultra-Orthodox. But resistance to the draft has caused weeks of protests by demonstrators chanting “death before conscription” and other slogans.
The controversy surrounding the draft has sparked heated debates and protests within the ultra-Orthodox community. Some have even vowed to resist the draft, citing religious grounds.
