Extract from ABC News
Ultra-Orthodox Israeli Jews are set to be conscripted to the army under a decree by Israel's Supreme Court which creates fresh political strains for embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The court ordered the immediate drafting of Jewish men from the sect, also known as Haredi, into the military this week.
They had been exempt from mandatory service accounting for religious persuasions.
Mr Netanyahu's Likud party said the Supreme Court's ruling was "perplexing", given ongoing efforts in parliament to agree on a new conscription law that would address personnel shortfalls in the army.
The prime minister's coalition government relies on two ultra-Orthodox parties that regard conscription exemptions as key to keeping their constituents in religious seminaries and out of a melting-pot army that might test their customs.
Leaders of those parties said they were disappointed with the ruling but issued no immediate threat to the government.
However, the prospect of the military, backed by Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, starting to draft seminary students could widen cracks in Netanyahu's increasingly brittle coalition.
Why is the exemption being removed now?
The ultra-Orthodox conscription waiver has become increasingly charged in Israel as its armed forces are overstretched by a multi-front war with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
"At the height of a difficult war, the burden of inequality is more than ever acute," the court's unanimous ruling said.
Israelis are bound by law to serve in the military from the age of 18 for 24–32 months.
Members of Israel's 21 per cent Arab minority are mostly exempt, though some do serve, and ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students have also been largely exempt for decades.
The law governing the exemption expired last year, but the government continued to allow them not to serve.
The Supreme Court ruled that in the absence of a new legal basis for the exemption, the state must draft them.
Adding further pressure on the ultra-Orthodox coalition parties, the ruling also barred seminaries from receiving state subsidies if scholars avoided service without deferrals or exemptions.
Political scientist Gideon Rahat, of the bi-partisan Israel Democracy Institute, said the ruling had piled fresh pressure on Mr Netanyahu.
"He will try to buy time and make every effort to remove this issue from the public agenda," he said.
While the military has said it is in dire need of more conscripts, ultra-Orthodox leaders see the exemptions as existential for preserving their traditions.
"There's no judge there who understands the value of Torah study and its contribution to the people of Israel throughout the generations," Moshe Gafni, leader of the Ashkenazi Haredi party United Torah Judaism, said.
Opposition parties have welcomed the ruling, arguing mandatory military enlistment should be applicable across all sects of Judaism.
The government has called on the Supreme Court for more time to pass a new conscription law for more than six years, with a fast-growing Haredi population piling further burden on an under-recruited army.
Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jews now make up 13 per cent of Israel's 10 million population — a figure expected to reach 19 per cent by 2035 due to their high birth rates.
The bill to draft seminary students, currently being hammered out in parliament, could resolve the crisis if wide agreement is reached or potentially bring down Mr Netanyahu's brittle government.
Overall, many members of the Likud party including Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and a majority of the opposition, back the court decree and want an even division of the conscription burden.
The military waiver for the ultra-Orthodox has sparked protests in recent months by Israelis angry they are shouldering the risk of fighting the war in Gaza.
In city streets, ultra-Orthodox demonstrators have blocked roads under the banner "death before conscription".
The conscription waiver keeps some of the community in seminaries and out of the workforce, hindering economic growth and placing a welfare burden on middle-class taxpayers.
Reuters
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