ISPI - Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale

07/25/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 07/25/2024 05:11

The Battle over the Enlistment of Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel

The exemption of ultra-Orthodox Jews (Haredim in Hebrew) from military service has long been a contentious issue in Israel. This debate escalated on 25 June 2024, when the Supreme Court ruled that ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students must be drafted into the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). This landmark decision, following years of legal and political deadlock, has ignited public opinion and political responses. As the country grapples with an intensified war effort, the issue of Haredi conscription has polarised opinions, dividing those advocating for exemptions from those demanding equal service obligations for all citizens.

A long-standing issue

The ultra-Orthodox exemption from military service goes back to the foundation of the State of Israel. It was in 1948 that, following a compromise with ultra-Orthodox leaders, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion decided to exempt 400 yeshivas students from military service. The arrangement, based on the concept of Torato Omanuto, translated as "Torah is his profession", was implemented through a regulation of the Defence Ministry. This mechanism persisted until 1998, when, in the Rubinstein VS Minister of Defence case, the Supreme Court ruled that Tomato Omanuto violated the principle of equality and that it was the Knesset's responsibility to address such a sensitive topic, and not the Defence Ministry's. Since then, the Knesset has struggled to regulate the issue in a manner that satisfies both the Supreme Court and the requests of Haredi parties, which have often been part of government coalitions over the years. From 2017 to 2023, due to the political instability that saw Israelis go to the polls five times in four years, the Supreme Court granted the government's demands and postponed the deadline for drafting a new bill, allowing the Defence Minister to defer the exemption of the Haredim. On 30 June 2023, the 2014 Defence Service Law, the last exemption law ratified by the Knesset, expired. Acknowledging its inability to formulate new legislation before the deadline, the government, with Decision 628 of 25 June 2023, ordered Defence Minister Yoav Gallant not to enlist the Haredim until 1 April 2024.

What did the court decide?

The government's decision caused much uproar and anti-government groups such as Brothers in Arms summoned a petition against the government. Soon after that, the Supreme Court started a series of hearings that resulted in two sentences. In the first one, which was ruled at the end of March 2024, the Court issued an interim order that interrupted state funding transfers to the yeshivas where students do not serve in the army. According to the Court, in the absence of a normative basis for the non-recruitment of yeshiva students from 1 April 2024, there was no longer any authority to transfer state funds to schools whose students did not receive any service deferment.

The second sentence arrived just three months after the first. On 25 June 2024, the Court ruled that, in the absence of specific legislation, the army must enroll the Haredim, calling the government to act according to the law. Considering the 1998 sentence, the judges declared the government's Decision 628 illegal: since the Minister of Defence had no authority to exempt Haredim from military service, the government has no legal power to instruct the Minister to do so. In the ruling, the Court did not make anydirect reference to Haredi women, a fact that suggests that it is unlikely that they too should be subject to the ruling.

The Court designated the IDF as the competent authority to begin the enrollment of approximately 63,000Haredi young men. Still, the Court failed short to give specific instructions on how to do just that. Following the sentence, Attorney-General Baharav-Miara ordered the IDF to immediately enlist 3,000 Haredim. This was already the figure provided by the IDF as a realistic target for the 2024 enlistment year. This amount will be added to the average number of Haredim conscripted in recent years, which the IDF puts at around 1,800 a year. However, this amount is the initial number, as the conscription should be much more extensive. On Thursday 18 July 2024, Gallant instructed the IDF to send out 3,000 draft orders to members of the Haredi community in three waves, starting the following week.

Could the Haredim issue mark the end of Netanyahu's government?

Despite these developments, the government still has a chance to implement another exemption for Haredim from military service, since, according to the Court, the Knesset can still legislate in this regard. Following the April decision of the Court, the government decided to solve the issue resuming a bill devised by Benny Gantz in 2022. This draft aims to lower the current age of exemption from service for yeshiva students from 26 to 21 and to "very slowly" increase the rate of ultra-Orthodox conscription. This bill was resumed thanks to "Continuity Law", a legal mechanism that allows laws that were approved in the first reading during a previous Knesset to return to the agenda of the new one. The Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee is currently discussing the bill, which the government hopes to pass before the end of the Knesset's summer session on 28 July.

The debate over the exemption of yeshiva students from military service has cast a shadow over the stability of Netanyahu's government. Among the parties in the coalition, there are also the two ultra-Orthodox parties: the United Torah Judaism (UTJ), which represents the instances of the Ashkenazi Haredi community, and Shas, depicting Sephardi and Mizrahi Haredi Jews. Despite their differences, both parties promote Haredi interests, especially regarding religious education, welfare and the exemption of yeshiva students from military service. The two parties, which have 18 seats in the Knesset and have supported Gantz's bill to regulate Haredi exemptions, are of critical importance for the coalition's stability. Failure to enact this law could lead them to withdraw from the coalition, risking its collapse. The compulsory enlistment of yeshiva students remains a red line for ultra-Orthodox lawmakers, which threatens their fragile alliance with Netanyahu. Internal conflicts have also arisen, with some coalition members, including Likud's Gallant, opposing Gantz's proposal and calling for universal conscription.

Even though over the past two years many requests of the ultra-Orthodox parties have been met, as seen with the amendment to the 2024 wartime budget which imposed cuts in nearly all sectors except for ultra-Orthodox schools, concerns are growing among the parties' lawmakers about the government's ability to continue accommodating these demands. Other crises within Netanyahu's government coalition have further compounded this situation. Last month, a further rift in the coalition was caused by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's refusal to support a Shas-backed Rabbis bill -aimed at expanding the influence of the Chief Rabbinate and the Religious Service Ministry in the appointment of municipal rabbis, unless Prime Minister Netanyahu granted him a spot in the war cabinet. Netanyahu removed the bill from the agenda to avoid yielding to Ben-Gvir's demand, angering the Shas party, who suspended their voting support for the coalition. The party resumed supporting the coalition, but this development has intensified the concerns of the Haredi parties regarding the government's ability to implement an exemption for Haredim from military service successfully. Even though the leaders have stated they won't leave the government until the Court's decision is enforceable, the risk remains substantial.

The parties and the Haredi public: A growing rift

In addition to the tensions with the government, Shas and UTJ are also facing increasing discontent of the Haredi public. Even if the parties' leaders condemned the decisions of the Court, the fact that they have refrained from threatening to leave the government angered a part of the Haredi population. On 30 June 2024, during a violent protest that saw thousands of ultra-Orthodox demonstrating against the court ruling, UTJ leader and Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf was attacked with stones by Haredi protestors. This is just the latest evidence of the growing rift between the two Haredi parties and their constituencies, which are increasingly perceiving them as complicit with the government and willing to compromise on the study of the Torah to remain in power. A poll published last month by Radio Army further proves this, with 81% of the Haredi public supporting the deferral of every yeshiva student, and 65% believing that the Haredi parties would have to leave the coalition if the government were to start recruiting them.

The majority of the Haredi community opposes recruitment in the IDF, perceived as an attack on the Ultra-Orthodox way of life and the prescriptions of the Jewish Law, the Halacha. Many of the most prominent ultra-Orthodox rabbis in Israel believe that, by joining the army, the Haredi male youth would not be able to respect the basic Halacha laws, such as gender segregation, the Kosher diet and the Shabbat. Moreover, they believe that the exposition to the secular way of life would not only affect their capacity to study the Torah, a God-derived duty, but it would threaten the entire Jewish people survival. Some of them believe that the study of the Torah is the reason why Jewish society survived the most terrific events that had to go through including the Holocaust, and they believe that Israel has been victorious in the many wars it had to fight precisely because yeshiva students studied the Torah.

Despite the resistance to joining the army, after 7 October many Haredim mobilised in support of the soldiers and the IDF. Since the war broke out, unprecedented numbers of Haredi men decided to enlist voluntarily in the IDF, with 3,000 requests joining the IDF in the first days of October for non-combat roles. Even more notable are the numerous Haredi-led initiatives to aid soldiers and civilians by cooking meals and assisting social services, including helping hundreds of families conduct funerals, and the great deal of prayers placed for the IDF's success in this war in Haredi communities.

In conclusion, the exemption of ultra-Orthodox Jews from military service remains a contentious and complex issue at the heart of Israeli society and politics. The Supreme Court's ruling has intensified the debate, revealing deep divisions within the country. As the IDF prepares to implement the Court's ruling, the controversy over Haredi conscription underscores the broader challenges Israel faces in reconciling its democratic principles with its diverse and evolving identity.