A Looming Crisis Threatens in Israel Regarding Haredi Conscription Bill

An impending crisis over drafting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the Israeli army is posing a risk to the administration and dividing the country.

The public mood on the question has shifted dramatically in Israel in the wake of two years of hostilities, and this is now arguably the most volatile political issue facing Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Judicial Battle

Legislators are reviewing a piece of legislation to end the special status given to ultra-Orthodox men dedicated to Torah study, created when the modern Israel was declared in 1948.

This arrangement was struck down by the Supreme Court in the early 2000s. Temporary arrangements to extend it were officially terminated by the judiciary last year, forcing the government to commence conscription of the Haredi sector.

Approximately 24,000 draft notices were issued last year, but only around 1,200 Haredi conscripts reported for duty, according to defense officials shared with lawmakers.

Tensions Spill Onto the Streets

Tensions are erupting onto the public squares, with lawmakers now debating a new draft bill to compel Haredi males into army duty in the same way as other secular Israelis.

Two representatives were harassed this month by radical elements, who are furious with parliament's discussion of the draft legislation.

Recently, a special Border Police unit had to rescue Military Police officers who were surrounded by a sizeable mob of ultra-Orthodox protesters as they sought to apprehend a suspected draft-evader.

These enforcement actions have sparked the creation of a new messaging system dubbed "Dark Alert" to rapidly disseminate information through Haredi neighborhoods and summon activists to stop detentions from occurring.

"We're a Jewish country," remarked an activist. "One cannot oppose religious practice in a nation founded on Jewish identity. It doesn't work."

An Environment Apart

Yet the transformations affecting Israel have not reached the walls of the Torah academy in Bnei Brak, an Haredi enclave on the edge of Tel Aviv.

Inside the classroom, young students sit in pairs to analyze Judaism's religious laws, their distinctive school notebooks standing out against the seats of white shirts and traditional skullcaps.

"Visit in the early hours, and you will see many of the students are engaged in learning," the dean of the yeshiva, the spiritual guide, said. "Through religious study, we shield the military personnel wherever they are. This constitutes our service."

Haredi Jews maintain that continuous prayer and Torah learning guard Israel's armed forces, and are as vital to its military success as its advanced weaponry. This conviction was accepted by the nation's leaders in the earlier decades, he said, but he admitted that Israel was changing.

Rising Public Pressure

The ultra-Orthodox population has grown substantially its percentage of the country's people over the past seven decades, and now represents a sizable minority. An exemption that started as an deferment for a small number of religious students evolved into, by the onset of the 2023 war, a cohort of tens of thousands of men not subject to the draft.

Polling data indicate support for ending the exemption is growing. Research in July found that 85% of non-Haredi Jews - including a large segment in the Prime Minister's political base - favored sanctions for those who declined a call-up notice, with a clear majority in approving withdrawing benefits, travel documents, or the right to vote.

"It makes me feel there are citizens who reside in this country without contributing," one serviceman in Tel Aviv explained.

"In my view, no matter how devout, [it] should be an reason not to perform service your state," said a Tel Aviv resident. "Being a native, I find it somewhat unreasonable that you want to exempt yourself just to learn in a yeshiva all day."

Perspectives from Within Bnei Brak

Backing for broadening conscription is also expressed by traditional Jews beyond the ultra-Orthodox sector, like a Bnei Brak inhabitant, who resides close to the yeshiva and points to religious Zionists who do serve in the military while also engaging in religious study.

"I am frustrated that ultra-Orthodox people don't perform military service," she said. "It is unjust. I too follow the Jewish law, but there's a saying in Hebrew - 'Safra and Saifa' – it represents the scripture and the guns 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. Long columns of faces {