Israel’s Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the army must start conscripting ultra-Orthodox Jewish men, a decision that threatens to split Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government amid the Gaza war.
In a unanimous decision, the nine-judge panel found that military exemptions long granted to ultra-Orthodox religious students have no legal basis. The court ruled that in the absence of a law distinguishing between seminarians and other men of conscription age, the country’s mandatory draft law must apply equally to the ultra-Orthodox minority.
Exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox have long caused resentment in a country where most Jewish Israelis, both men and women, are required to serve in the military. But anger over the special treatment meted out to the group is growing as the war in Gaza, which has required tens of thousands of reservists on multiple missions and left hundreds of soldiers dead, enters its ninth month.
“Today, in a difficult war, the burden of inequality is greater than ever and requires sustainable solutions to the problem,” the Supreme Court said in its ruling.
The decision threatens to widen one of the most bitter divisions in Israeli society, pitting secular Jews against the ultra-Orthodox, who claim their religious studies are as important and protective as the military. It also exposed the fault lines in Netanyahu’s coalition, which relies on the support of two ultra-Orthodox parties that oppose conscription among their constituents, even as other Israelis have suffered heavy casualties in Gaza.
Israeli courts have previously ruled against this exemption, including Supreme Court rulings in 1998, 2012 and 2017. The law could be subject to a constitutional challenge, like previous ones – while also giving the government time to finalize our legislation.
But in the seven years since the last law was repealed, successive Israeli governments have dragged their feet on drafting new legislation. In 2023, the law finally expired, leading the Israeli government to order the army not to conscript ultra-Orthodox individuals while lawmakers struggled to find exemptions.
On Tuesday, the court said its patience had finally run out and declared the order illegal. It does not set a timetable for when the military must begin recruiting tens of thousands of religious students to be drafted into the military. The move could pose huge logistical and political challenges and face massive resistance from the ultra-Orthodox community.
Israel’s Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said in a letter to government officials on Tuesday that the military has pledged to recruit at least 3,000 ultra-Orthodox religious students in the coming year — out of more than 60,000 A student of appropriate age. She noted that this number is nowhere near enough to close the gap in military service between the ultra-Orthodox community and other Israeli Jews.
Instead, the ruling includes a means to pressure the ultra-Orthodox to accept the court’s ruling: suspending millions of dollars in government subsidies to religious or yeshiva schools that had previously supported exempt students, a move that would undermine the respected Institutions dealt a blow.
The court’s ruling threatens Mr Netanyahu’s fragile wartime coalition, which includes secular members who oppose immunity and ultra-Orthodox parties who support it. With popular support for the government low, disruption by any one group could lead to its collapse and new elections. Opposition opponents in the Knesset mainly want an end to immunity.
The Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack that sparked eight months of war in Gaza has softened the ultra-Orthodox stance on conscription somewhat, with some leaders saying those who cannot study the Bible should join the military .
“Still, the maximum that the ultra-Orthodox community is willing to give is still well below what the Israeli public is willing to accept,” said Israel Cohen, a commentator for ultra-Orthodox radio station Kol Barama.
But he said ultra-Orthodox parties have few viable options and may be in no rush to topple Mr Netanyahu’s coalition. “They see no other option, so they try to make it work,” Mr. Cohen said. “They will be willing to compromise more than they were a year ago to keep the government.”
Now, the military must develop a plan to potentially welcome into the service thousands of soldiers whose objections to service, whose insularity and traditions are incompatible with a modern fighting force.
Yohanan Plessner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank, said the court’s ruling “created a huge political wound at the heart of the alliance” and that Netanyahu must now urgently address the issue.
Netanyahu’s Likud party criticized the Supreme Court in a statement for ruling at a time when the government plans to legislate to invalidate the case. The party said the government’s proposed law would increase the number of ultra-Orthodox conscripts while recognizing the importance of religious studies.
It’s unclear whether Netanyahu’s proposal will ultimately withstand judicial scrutiny. But Plessner said if passed by Parliament, the new law would likely face years of court challenges, buying the government more time.
Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling sparked immediate outrage among ultra-Orthodox politicians. Many ultra-Orthodox see military service as a gateway into secular Israeli society, leading young people to stray from the lifestyle guided by the Jewish biblical Torah.
“The State of Israel was founded to be the home of the Jewish people, for whom the Torah is the cornerstone of their existence. The Holy Torah will prevail,” said ultra-Orthodox government minister Yitzhak Godekno Yitzhak Goldknopf said in a statement on Monday.
After the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, Israelis were united and determined to fight back. But fault lines in Israeli society soon resurfaced as thousands of reservists were called upon to serve in Gaza for a second and third time.
Some Israeli analysts have warned that the war could spread to other fronts in the West Bank and Lebanon’s northern border, leading the government to call for more troops and further straining relations between secular and ultra-Orthodox Jews.
Already many Israelis – whether secular, religious or ultra-Orthodox – see the issue of conscription as a skirmish in a broader cultural battle over the country’s increasingly uncertain future.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews have been exempt from military service since Israel’s founding in 1948, when Israeli leaders promised them autonomy in exchange for their support in creating a largely secular state. At that time, there were only a few hundred students in the yeshiva.
The number of ultra-Orthodox people has exceeded 1 million, accounting for about 13% of Israel’s population. They wield considerable political influence, and their elected leaders become champions of the king and hold important positions in most Israeli coalition governments.
But as the ultra-Orthodox’s power has grown, so has anger over their failure to serve in the military and their relatively small contribution to the economy. In 2019, Mr. Netanyahu’s former ally Avigdor Lieberman rejected his offer to join a coalition that would legislate draft exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox. The decision helped Israel hold elections again – five times in four years.
After Mr Netanyahu returned to power last year and took charge of his current coalition, he sparked massive protests by trying to legislate a plan to weaken the country’s judiciary. For ultra-Orthodox supporters of judicial reform, a key motivation is to ensure that the Supreme Court no longer blocks their ability to avoid conscription.
Ron Scherff, a lieutenant colonel in the Israeli reserves, said many soldiers were frustrated by serving multiple tours of duty during the war, even though ultra-Orthodox Israelis “were never drafted in the first place.”
Mr. Sherf, an activist with Band of Brothers, a reservist group that opposes Mr. Netanyahu, asked: “How can Israel allow an entire community to be exempted from its civic duties?”
Gaby Sobelman, Jonathan Rice and Myra Novick Contributed reporting.
