Will Benjamin Netanyahu’s fragile coalition implode on the question of the military exemption for ultra-Orthodox men, from which they have benefited since 1948? Although it is still too early to know, there is no doubt that the country, engaged in the longest and most painful armed conflict of its existence, has just experienced a mini-earthquake on the evening of Thursday March 29. While the government had until April 1 to present its bill intended to find a compromise around the exceptional status granted to young “men in black” from Talmudic schools (yeshivot), the High Court of Justice ruled.
Ignoring Bibi Netanyahu’s request to obtain in extremis a grace period of one month, the judges have in fact rendered a provisional judgment according to which due to lack of a legal framework, it will no longer be possible, on April 1, to transfer the budgets granted to yeshivot for students who do not enlist. Concretely, this financial freeze will represent a shortfall of around 600 million shekels (150 million euros) for these schools, of which tens of thousands of students aged 18 to 26 are exempt from the three years of compulsory military service and live on public subsidies when they attend religious seminaries full-time.
“Sign of Cain”
A decision which did not fail to provoke the ire of the ultra-orthodox parties, pillars, alongside the formation of the leader of the extreme right Itamar Ben Gvir, of the coalition of the leader of the Likud, Netanyahu. Shas Party Chairman Aryeh Deri called the ruling “a sign of Cain and unprecedented cruelty towards Torah scholars in the Jewish state,” and even said that he “understands [ait] those who do not want to serve in the army of a country that fights the world of yeshivot“.
On paper, this is yet another twist in the series around the military status of haredi – these ultraorthodox, who represent 13.5% of Israeli society, and have made this issue an old sea serpent of Israeli politics. Seven years ago, the High Court of Justice had already ruled that this controversial exemption concerning them amounted to a discriminatory device due to the attack on the principle of equality between citizens.
But in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attack and the war waged in Gaza by 287,000 reservists, and while the army is calling for an extension of the duration of compulsory military service and periods of reserve, this exceptional regime no longer passes. “The cup is full, at a time when every day, soldiers fall in combat or are seriously injured. An immense majority of Israelis consider the military exemption of haredim”points out Shuki Friedman, vice-president of Jewish People Policy Institute. The day after October 7, only 540 ultraorthodox joined the army and in February, 66,000 men from this community were exempted. “But by 2030, a quarter of young Israelis will be haredi, continues the expert. It’s up to the State to change the situation.”
Donkeys brought before the Knesset
In recent days, the organization Brothers in armspivot of the social protest led last year against the judicial reform advocated by the Netanyahu coalition, organized demonstrations, at the foot of a yeshiva in the ultraorthodox locality of Bnei Brak (near Tel Aviv), as well as in front of the Knessetby bringing… donkeys, symbols of the military or even economic “burden”, which certain sections of the national population no longer want to be the only ones to carry.
Within the war cabinet, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called the bill on the exemption of the ultra-Orthodox “a moral failure” and threatened to leave the government, just like the centrist and rival of “Bibi”, Benny Gantz, for opposite reasons: if this burden were to increase. Knowing that the text studied by the government coalition would provide for raising the age limit for definitive military dispensation for young ultraorthodox Jews from 26 to 35 years old.
Can Israeli justice force this community to change its way of life? “If you force us to join the army, we will all go abroad,” Yitzhak Yosef, the Sephardic chief rabbi of the State of Israel, warned in early March. A warning which earned him a round of criticism from the entire political class…. The newspaper Yediot Aharonoth reports for its part that a plan has been developed within the army personnel department to absorb ultra-Orthodox recruits. With creative solutions, such as creating a suitable ultraorthodox training base to their way of life. However, for the moment, it is unlikely that IDF sends military police units to force the haredi to put on the uniform.
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