Israeli military conscription rules spark outrage among ultra-Orthodox

When the ultra-Orthodox or Orthodox Jewish community in Israel gathers in large numbers, you realize how big it is.

Thousands of men and boys dressed in black and white crowded the streets of Meah Sherim, the heart of Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox community, angrily protesting against the conscription.

They were the latest demonstrations since the Supreme Court’s historic ruling that young Orthodox men must be drafted into the army and no longer eligible for major government benefits.

Young people who are full-time students at Jewish seminaries told me that their religious way of life is in danger. They believe their prayers and spiritual studies can protect Israel and the Jewish people.

“For 2,000 years we have been persecuted, and we survived because we were learning Torah, and now the Supreme Court wants to remove it from us, which will lead to our destruction,” Joseph said.

“Joining the army makes a religious Jew no longer religious.”

“The draft is not helpful to the military. They don’t want us Orthodox Jews, they don’t need us,” another student, who did not give his name because he did not have rabbi permission to interview, told me.

“They will just do our dirty work for us. They are there to stop us from being Orthodox.

The role of the ultra-Orthodox in Israeli society has been controversial for decades. From a minority group in the beginning, the community now has a population of one million, accounting for 12.9% of the total population.

Ultra-Orthodox parties have often played the role of kingkeepers in Israeli politics, providing support to successive governments led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in exchange for continued draft exemptions and hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for their institutions.

This has been a long-standing cause of friction with secular Jewish Israelis, who mostly serve in compulsory military service and pay the lion’s share of taxes. But now the issue comes to a head at the most sensitive of times, as the military faces unprecedented pressure after the longest war in Gaza’s history and the possibility of a second war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“My son has been in the reserves for 200 days! How many years do you want him to do it? Why are you not ashamed?” Mor Shamgar asked when scolding Israel’s national security adviser at a recent meeting in Herzliya. road.

Her angry rant about her son’s role as a tank commander in southern Israel was widely shared on social media.

With army leaders complaining of manpower shortages in the ranks, Ms Shamgar – who said she had previously voted for the prime minister’s party – believed the government had “handled the situation very poorly” and put its own political survival before the country’s above interests.

“Netanyahu and his gang made a huge error of judgment in thinking they could get away with it,” she told me. “Because once you force half the population to join the military, you can’t force the other half not to join the military. It’s not even secular versus religious. I think it’s an equality issue. You can’t make laws that make half the population second-class citizens.

Earlier this year, a survey by the Israel Democracy Institute showed that 70 percent of Israeli Jews want an end to blanket military service exemptions for ultra-Orthodox members.

Despite earlier threats, ultra-Orthodox parties have so far not quit the governing coalition over conscription. People continue to try to advance an old bill – once rejected by Orthodox leaders – that would lead to the conscription of parts of their community.

In an ultra-Orthodox synagogue in Jerusalem, men of all ages donned prayer shawls and gathered for morning services. Their conservative lifestyle is based on a strict interpretation of Jewish law and customs.

So far, only one Israeli army battalion, Netzah Yehuda, has been set up specifically to meet ultra-Orthodox demands for gender segregation, which include special requirements for kosher food and to set aside time for prayer and daily rituals.

But an ultra-Orthodox rabbi who works on integration issues and is on the board of an NGO that supports the battalion believes more compromise is possible and that a new Orthodox brigade should be formed.

“Orthodoxy should come to the table and say, we are ready to make real concessions, we are ready to step out of our traditional comfort zones and be proactive in finding the right framework so that more Orthodox people can serve.” , said Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer.

He suggested that thousands of young ultra-Orthodox men who are not currently studying full-time Torah – and who find themselves unfit for the rigorous academic requirements – should be encouraged to join the military like other Jewish Israelis their age.

In order for the Israeli army to live up to its reputation as a “people’s army”, Rabbi Pfeffer also called on the Israeli army to do more to build trust and improve relations with the community. “It takes a lot of tweaking, but it’s not rocket science,” he commented.

Implementation of the ultra-Orthodox draft appears to be gradual so far.

More than 60,000 ultra-Orthodox men are registered as yeshiva students and are exempt from military service. But since last week’s Supreme Court ruling, the army has only been told to call up another 3,000 men from the community, on top of the roughly 1,500 already serving. It has also been told to make plans to recruit more staff in the coming years.

Back in Miashereen, as night fell, some protesters took an extreme stance, throwing rocks at police and fanning out across Jerusalem to attack the cars of two ultra-Orthodox politicians they believed were They were let down by the draft.

Historically, this has been an isolated part of society that has resisted change, but now with rising public pressure on Israel and the possibility of expanded war, change seems inevitable.