The Israeli Supreme Court ruled unanimously this Tuesday the end of the military exemption for ultra-Orthodox, a measure that polarizes Israeli society especially since the war in the Gaza Strip, and that puts Benjamin Netanyahu’s government on the ropes, given the risk that the Haredi parties will abandon the coalition.
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“In the midst of an exhausting war, the burden of inequality is harder than ever and demands a solution,” said Supreme Court President Uzi Vogelman when announcing the ruling, following an appeal filed in February by the Movement for a Quality Government, a progressive civil group, and associations of reservists and ex-military members.
In the midst of a grueling war, the burden of inequality is harsher than ever and demands a solution.
The Court decided that “there is no legal basis to exclude ultra-Orthodox men from the draft” and that if they do not serve in the Army they should not receive publicly funded educational and social assistance grants, as is currently the case.
The military exemption for ultra-Orthodox Jews who study full-time in yeshivas (Talmudic school) is not a law, but an executive provision that has been periodically extended since the birth of the State of Israel, although there are several court rulings indicating that it violates the principle of equality of the Israeli basic law.
The ruling does not imply the immediate sending of recruitment orders for the nearly 63,000 haredi men eligible – equivalent to five military divisions – for compulsory military service, and suggests a gradual process, starting with 3,000 new ultra-Orthodox recruits. It does not go into details about how to apply the measure.
Neither Netanyahu nor the government has made a formal statement, but his party, the Likud, has suggested political interests behind the ruling of the Supreme Court, which “for 76 years abstained from forcing the recruitment of yeshiva students.”
Anger of the ultra-Orthodox, will they abandon the coalition?
The two ultra-Orthodox parties – Shas and United Torah Judaism (JUT) – oppose the recruitment of young Torah scholars and They have threatened to abandon the current government coalition if the measure comes into force, endangering their survival because they provide 18 vital seats.
In a defiant tone to the Supreme Court, the leader of Shas, Aryeh Deri – a close ally of Netanyahu – stated that “there is no power in the world that prevents the people of Israel from studying the Torah and anyone who tried in the past failed miserably.” . “No arbitrary ruling will abolish the community of scholars in the land of Israel.”
JUT leader and Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf called the decision “expected and unfortunate” and recalled that the State of Israel was born as “a home for the Jewish people, with the Torah as a cornerstone.”
“There has never been a Supreme Court ruling in favor of yeshiva students and in the interest of the ultra-Orthodox. There is not a single judge who understands the value of Torah study and its contribution to the people of Israel,” said the co-leader of JUT, Rabbi and Deputy Moshe Gafni.
There is not a single judge who understands the value of Torah study and its contribution to the people of Israel.
At the beginning of April, a temporary exemption rule expired, and since then numerous civil society groups and politicians, including within the government, have called for an end to the privileges of the ultra-Orthodox, around 13% of Israeli society.
The Supreme Court began hearings in June following a request from several civil groups. The Executive was represented by a private lawyer, since the Attorney General, Gali Baharav-Miara, opposes the military exemption.
“The ruling is a historic victory for the principle of equal recruitment and the rule of law. We demand the immediate recruitment of yeshiva students,” indicated the lawyers of the Quality Government Movement.
The opposition leader, the centrist Yair Lapid, demanded the same, and recalled that recruiting ultra-Orthodox “is now the law” and “must be followed.”
After the massive mobilization of some 300,000 reservists for the war in Gaza, which has lasted almost nine months and in which more than 300 soldiers have died – in addition to the deployment of battalions on the northern border with Lebanon and in the West Bank – many Israelis demand to Netanyahu, that all young people in Israel fulfill their military “duty.”
His Government, however, depends on the support of two ultra-Orthodox parties that oppose such a measure; while members of his party, the Likud – including the head of Defense – and the extreme right formations within the coalition – Religious Zionism and Jewish Power – are in favor of ending the exemption.
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