A Crisis Looms in Israel Over Haredi Military Draft Bill

An impending political storm over drafting Haredi men into the military is threatening to undermine the governing coalition and dividing the nation.

Public opinion on the question has shifted dramatically in Israel following two years of hostilities, and this is now perhaps the most divisive political risk facing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Constitutional Struggle

Legislators are currently considering a piece of legislation to end the deferment given to Haredi students engaged in full-time religious study, instituted when the State of Israel was established in 1948.

The deferment was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the early 2000s. Interim measures to maintain it were formally ended by the bench last year, compelling the government to begin drafting the Haredi sector.

Some 24,000 enlistment orders were delivered last year, but only around 1,200 Haredi conscripts showed up, according to military testimony shared with lawmakers.

Tensions Boil Over Into Violence

Tensions are erupting onto the streets, with parliamentarians now deliberating a new draft bill to compel yeshiva students into military service in the same way as other Israeli Jews.

Two Haredi politicians were harassed this month by hardline activists, who are enraged with the legislative debate of the bill.

Recently, a specialized force had to assist Military Police officers who were targeted by a big group of Haredi men as they sought to apprehend a man avoiding service.

Such incidents have sparked the creation of a new communication network dubbed "Dark Alert" to send out instant alerts through ultra-Orthodox communities and mobilize protesters to stop detentions from occurring.

"Israel is a Jewish nation," remarked one protester. "It's impossible to battle religious practice in a Jewish country. It doesn't work."

A Realm Apart

However the shifts blowing through Israel have failed to penetrate the walls of the religious seminary in a Haredi stronghold, an Haredi enclave on the edge of Tel Aviv.

Inside the classroom, teenage boys learn in partnerships to debate Jewish law, their distinctive writing books popping against the seats of formal attire and small black kippahs.

"Visit in the early hours, and you will see many of the students are engaged in learning," the leader of the academy, Rabbi Tzemach Mazuz, said. "By studying Torah, we shield the military personnel in the field. This is how we contribute."

Haredi Jews maintain that continuous prayer and Torah learning protect Israel's soldiers, and are as essential to its military success as its conventional forces. This tenet was endorsed by previous governments in the earlier decades, the rabbi said, but he admitted that the nation is evolving.

Rising Public Pressure

This religious sector has significantly increased its percentage of the nation's citizens over the past seven decades, and now constitutes 14%. What began as an deferment for several hundred religious students turned into, by the onset of the Gaza war, a cohort of some 60,000 men exempt from the conscription.

Surveys indicate approval of ultra-Orthodox conscription is growing. A poll in July found that a large majority of non-Haredi Jews - including a significant majority in his own coalition allies - favored consequences for those who refused a draft order, with a clear majority in favor of cutting state subsidies, travel documents, or the electoral participation.

"It makes me feel there are citizens who are part of this country without contributing," one military member in Tel Aviv said.

"I don't think, no matter how devout, [it] should be an excuse not to go and serve your nation," added Gabby. "If you're born here, I find it somewhat unreasonable that you want to avoid service just to learn in a yeshiva all day."

Perspectives from Within Bnei Brak

Advocacy of extending the draft is also expressed by observant Jews beyond the Haredi community, like Dorit Barak, who lives near the academy and highlights religious Zionists who do serve in the military while also maintaining their faith.

"I am frustrated that ultra-Orthodox people don't enlist," she said. "It is unjust. I too follow the Jewish law, but there's a proverb in Hebrew - 'Safra and Saifa' – it means the Torah and the weapons together. That is the path, until the arrival of peace."

She maintains a modest remembrance site in her city to local soldiers, both religious and secular, who were fallen in war. Lines of photographs {