Israeli Supreme Court rules ultra-Orthodox men must be drafted: NPR

In a landmark ruling that threatens to expose Israel's government, the country's Supreme Court has ordered the army to begin conscripting ultra-Orthodox men into service.

Tuesday's decision was unanimous, and comes amid strong public opposition to the policy after last year's Hamas-led invasion of Israel and months of fighting in Gaza that has strained the army's resources.

For years, Israel's Supreme Court has held that religious exemptions violate equal protection laws. In its new ruling, the court said the state was “conducting a wrongful election, which represents a serious violation of the rule of law.”

The court also halted subsidies for religious madrassas, or yeshivas, whose young students refuse to enroll, a measure first implemented in March.

Before Tuesday's decision, the Israeli government had repeatedly extended the exemption, but had failed to pass a law that would make it permanent, or allow a more limited draft of ultra-Orthodox men. During recent court arguments, the AP reported, government lawyers said forcing them to register would “tear apart Israeli society.”

With the ultra-Orthodox infiltrating now set to begin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now faces the prospect of losing support within what was already a weak coalition that kept him in power. The two politically powerful ultra-Orthodox parties are key to Netanyahu's governing coalition and strongly oppose drafting their constituencies. If they leave the coalition, it could bring down Netanyahu's government and trigger new elections.

Immunity was seen as unsustainable.

Ultra-Orthodox military exemptions were established in Israel after the Holocaust in 1948, when protecting the remains of religious scholars was considered key to the Jewish state. Initially, it applied only to about 400 members of Orthodox, or Haredi, families.

But in Israel, where military service is otherwise mandatory, Haredi families have an average of six or seven children, a birth rate that makes them the fastest-growing part of the country's population. They now make up a quarter of enlistment-age men, according to Yonahan Plessner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute.

“There are huge implications for Israeli democracy in multiple dimensions,” he says.

For one thing, you can't keep a job to get out of military service. This is seen as a drag on the economy and an increasing financial burden on the rest of the country. Moreover, Haredi political power has grown along with its population, and has been critical to Netanyahu's coalition.

“[Netanyahu’s] Throughout his political career, there was a kind of overarching directive: preserve the alliance with the ultra-Orthodox at all costs, because that alliance preserves his grip on power,” says Pulisner.

For ultra-Orthodox leaders, the fight is existential. Haredi means one who trembles before God. They reject engagement with the modern world, and fear that exposing young people to it through the military will destroy their way of life.

The Hamas attack and Israel's response intensified the opposition

Since a surprise attack by Hamas on October 7 that killed 1,200 people in Israel, the country has been fighting on three fronts: a punitive military campaign in Gaza that has killed more than 37,600 Palestinians, the Gaza Ministry according to health; Fighting in the West Bank and mutual attacks along its northern border with the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah have intensified. To support it all, the Israeli military has called up millions of reservists, drafted others early and pushed for longer rotations.

“People who are serving are going to have to do twice or three times as much now. That's crazy. It's not going to happen,” says Ron Sheriff, co-founder of Brothers and Sisters in Arms. Since the start of the war in Gaza, the group of reservists has held regular protests calling for an end to widespread ultra-Orthodox immunity. Polls have shown overwhelming support for the group's position, with more than 70 percent of Jewish respondents in Israel saying the exemptions need to change.

“A minister in the government who is willing to send my son to his death, and his son is doing nothing,” the sheriff says. “Who can understand that?”

The sheriff's group has made three demands: Everyone must be registered. Exemptions should apply to all; And both laws should be enforced.

One challenge: the stigma that ultra-Orthodox soldiers face.

A few thousand ultra-Orthodox people voluntarily signed up for military service after the Hamas invasion. Among them is Mordechai Porat, a 36-year-old social worker in Bnei Brak, the center of ultra-Orthodox life.

“I felt like a tiger in a cage. I had to do something,” he says.

Porat has spent months providing treatment at a nearby military base. But he never wears his green army fatigues in town and hides his military dog ​​tag under his shirt. Even with that low profile, he says it has paid off.

“Mine [kindergarten age] The son has not been accepted into a community school yet,” Porat said in a March interview.

For other ultra-Orthodox, the social cost of joining the Israeli army can be even greater.

“Going into the army will hurt their ability to marry,” said Tel Aviv University's Nechomi Yaffe, who is ultra-Orthodox herself. “It will spoil their relationship in the family.”

He believes it would be good for the community to “normalize” as more people are drafted. But she thinks Israelis don't understand how difficult the process can be for young people who are socially isolated, with little human rights education.

“I think Israeli society should ask itself, do you want to see them in the army?” she says. “you know, [Israelis] Want to see blood? They want to see them in uniform, shooting. I don't think that's a good idea.”

Yaffe believes it would make more sense for them to start out as truck drivers or cooks as they adjust to a secular world.

Porat, who joined voluntarily, thinks most would choose prison time over enlistment. But after the Hamas attacks, polls showed more community support for the troops, and Porat thinks more will open up to the idea over time. Still, he cautions that slowness is best.

“If people are forced into it,” he says, “they'll just back off.”