Israel’s Supreme Court has unanimously ruled in a landmark case that ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminarians should be conscripted into the military.
There has long been an exemption from conscription for young men enrolled in formal religious studies, but the legal agreement allowing this practice to continue has expired.
The move is likely to send shock waves through Israel’s ruling coalition, which includes ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, parties.
As the ongoing fighting with Hamas in the Gaza Strip strains the military, exemption from conscription for ultra-Orthodox men has become an increasingly urgent social issue.
The Supreme Court said, “Amidst a vicious war, the burden of inequality is more severe than ever and demands a solution.”
The Israeli army is often described as a “people’s army” by most Israelis, with the exception of Israeli Arabs who are required by law to serve.
The Supreme Court recently ruled that “discrimination against the most precious thing, that is, life itself, is the worst kind of discrimination,” referring to the fact that numerous soldiers lost their lives while fighting for their country.
One of the court’s lead petitioners, the non-profit Movement for Quality Government in Israel, welcomed the ruling, describing it as a “historic victory” and calling for immediate action to recruit Jewish seminaries (yeshivas). urged. students.
About 63,000 ultra-Orthodox men who engage in full-time Torah study are exempt, according to data confirmed by the court. The ruling means they now likely face conscription.
The court also ruled that public funding for yeshivahs whose students avoid conscription should be frozen.
Shmuel Horowitz, a lawyer who represented the Yeshiva Association in court, told the BBC he was “disappointed but not surprised by this decision,” adding, “Courts are not the appropriate forum for resolving these kinds of social problems.”
Asked about the expected reaction of the ultra-Orthodox community, he noted, “They stick to their rabbis and don’t really care about the courts.”
He suggested there was still time to come up with a solution that would render the court ruling useless before Israel’s parliament goes into recess at the end of July.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government relies for its survival on two ultra-Orthodox parties that see draft exemption as a political priority: Shas and Torah Judaism.
They believe that engaging their members in Torah study is a way to protect the people of Israel and maintain their conservative practices.
Shas leader Aryeh Deri issued a defiant statement in response to the ruling.
“There is no power in the world that can stop the people of Israel from studying Torah, and everyone who has attempted this in the past has failed miserably,” he said.
Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, leader of United Torah Judaism, also pledged that “the Holy Torah will triumph.”
The end of the exemption would likely lead to ultra-Orthodox parties withdrawing from the coalition, leading to the government’s collapse and new elections at a time when Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud party is unpopular.
The prime minister has been pushing a bill tabled by the previous government for 2022, which sought a compromise by calling for limited ultra-Orthodox enlistment.
Likud said in a statement that the bill “significantly increases the rate of recruitment of the ultra-Orthodox public, establishes institutional and financial sanctions for failure to achieve its goals, and recognizes the importance of Torah study.”
However, because this bill was enacted before the war, there is criticism that it is insufficient to solve the current military manpower shortage problem.
In addition to maintaining troops in Gaza, the army is preparing for a possible war with the powerful Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Soldiers are already mobilized in northern Israel, where gunfights are taking place almost daily across the border with Lebanon.
There have been a series of legal challenges to ultra-Orthodox exemptions over the years, and previous court rulings have found the system unjust. However, the Supreme Court did not make a final decision on the enlistment of yeshiva students and repeatedly referred the issue to the National Assembly for legislation. It has been proven that it cannot be done.
The history of exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox dates back to 1949, a year after the creation of the state of Israel.
At the time, there were about 400 yeshiva students in Israel. The country’s founding fathers allowed the ultra-Orthodox community and its yeshivahs to avoid military service because they were wiped out in the Holocaust during World War II.
In modern Israel, demographics have changed dramatically. The ultra-Orthodox community’s high birth rate means they now make up 12% of Israel’s population.
About 10 percent of ultra-Orthodox members enlist each year when they reach the conscription age of 18, according to the Israeli parliament’s National Control Committee.
Special forces already exist that allow ultra-Orthodox men to serve as combat soldiers by creating conditions conducive to strict adherence to their religious beliefs and Halakha, the Jewish religious law.
