A Major Crisis Approaches in Israel Over Ultra-Orthodox Military Draft Bill

An impending political storm over drafting Haredi men into the Israeli army is threatening to undermine Israel's government and splitting the nation.

The public mood on the matter has changed profoundly in Israel following two years of conflict, and this is now perhaps the most volatile political risk facing the Prime Minister.

The Legal Conflict

Lawmakers are reviewing a piece of legislation to terminate the deferment given to yeshiva scholars dedicated to full-time religious study, created when the modern Israel was founded in 1948.

The deferment was ruled illegal by Israel's High Court of Justice almost 20 years ago. Interim measures to continue it were finally concluded by the judiciary last year, forcing the government to start enlisting the ultra-Orthodox population.

Approximately 24,000 call-up papers were sent out last year, but only around 1,200 ultra-Orthodox - or Haredi - draftees showed up, according to defense officials presented to lawmakers.

Friction Boil Over Onto the Streets

Strains are boiling over onto the streets, with lawmakers now deliberating a new draft bill to compel ultra-Orthodox men into army duty alongside other Jewish citizens.

Two representatives were harassed this month by some extreme ultra-Orthodox protesters, who are enraged with the legislative debate of the bill.

And last week, a special Border Police unit had to rescue Military Police officers who were targeted by a big group of ultra-Orthodox protesters as they sought to apprehend a alleged conscription dodger.

These arrests have prompted the establishment of a new alert system called "Emergency Alert" to rapidly disseminate information through ultra-Orthodox communities and call out activists to stop detentions from happening.

"We're a Jewish country," said one protester. "You can't fight against the Jewish faith in a Jewish country. It is a contradiction."

An Environment Apart

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

In the learning space, teenage boys study together to debate Jewish law, their distinctive notepads contrasting with the lines of white shirts and small black kippahs.

"Come at one in the morning, and you will see a significant portion are studying Torah," the head of the academy, Rabbi Tzemach Mazuz, explained. "Through religious study, we shield the troops wherever they are. This is our army."

The community holds that constant study and religious study defend Israel's soldiers, and are as crucial to its security as its advanced weaponry. This tenet was endorsed by Israel's politicians in the past, he said, but he conceded that the nation is evolving.

Increasing Popular Demand

This religious sector has significantly increased its proportion of Israel's population over the last seventy years, and now constitutes around one in seven. What began as an exemption for several hundred Torah scholars turned into, by the start of the recent conflict, a group of approximately 60,000 men not subject to the conscription.

Opinion polls show approval of ultra-Orthodox conscription is rising. Research in July found that a large majority of the broader Jewish public - including a large segment in his own coalition allies - supported penalties for those who refused a draft order, with a firm majority in supporting removing privileges, travel documents, or the electoral participation.

"I feel there are people who reside in this nation without giving anything back," one off-duty soldier in Tel Aviv said.

"I don't think, regardless of piety, [it] should be an justification not to go and serve your country," said a young woman. "As a citizen by birth, I find it rather absurd that you want to avoid service just to study Torah all day."

Voices from Inside a Religious City

Support for extending the draft is also coming from observant Jews outside the ultra-Orthodox sector, like a Bnei Brak inhabitant, who is a neighbor of the academy and points to observant but non-Haredi Jews who do serve in the military while also engaging in religious study.

"It makes me angry that ultra-Orthodox people don't serve in the army," she said. "It is unjust. I also believe in the Torah, but there's a saying in Hebrew - 'The Book and the Sword' – it signifies the scripture and the guns together. This is the correct approach, until the messianic era."

Ms Barak manages a small memorial in her city to fallen servicemen, both observant and non-observant, who were fallen in war. Lines of faces {