(Bloomberg) — Israel is facing a legal and political battle over how many ultra-Orthodox men should be drafted into the army and how quickly, as a result of a landmark Supreme Court ruling.
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Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said the military must hire 3,000 ultra-Orthodox recruits from July 1 after Tuesday’s historic decision, while making plans to recruit larger numbers in coming years. She also said the government should withhold money previously allocated to religious seminaries whose students were able to circumvent the design.
The court order to no longer allow the ultra-Orthodox, known as Haredim, to skip Israel’s system of mandatory military service is unpopular with the group but still has strong, broader support. The exemption has been in place since the state’s early days, and many Israelis say the burden of providing troops to fight the ongoing war with Hamas and counter the threat of Hezbollah in Lebanon should be shared equally across society.
The decision has consequences for the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s ruling coalition government, which relies on two religious parties to function as a majority.
There are already 1,800 Haredi soldiers in the Israeli army. The court said about 63,000 are available, and the country must act quickly to enforce the new ruling as Israel is at war.
Still, Yuli Edelstein, a lawmaker in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party who heads the committee where the conscription law will be discussed, said he won’t push through any bill that doesn’t have broad support — that is, from both the opposition and the coalition . .
Political consequences
Netanyahu and his religious partners want to minimize the number and pace of recruitment to limit the political fallout. Moshe Maya, the spiritual leader of Shas, one of the two Haredi parties in the coalition, called for opposition to conscription, saying: “Anyone who joins the army today will become a sinner tomorrow.”
But many of Netanyahu’s fellow conservatives believe it is crucial that Haredim, who now make up nearly 14% of Israel’s 10 million residents, are integrated into the military, especially as defense needs increase. And Netanyahu’s rivals, including within Likud, sense an opportunity to bring about early elections.
In theory, the religious parties could leave the coalition and seek a better deal with other parties. But it seems more likely that they want to minimize the impact of the ruling through internal negotiations.
Front pages
The front pages of the two largest Israeli newspapers, which are center-right, carried advertisements on Wednesday with words such as “Historic Day! One nation-one army. Let the army win!”
Haredi newspapers, in contrast, reported the ruling as a tragedy, with at least one article framing the article with black lines, mimicking a death announcement.
One of their biggest concerns is that subsidies for yeshiva – where students go to religious studies – will now be cut, and some charedi leaders called for donations.
A top rabbi wrote in a Haredi newspaper on Wednesday: “Dear brothers, help! The courts, haters of Torah students, have cut the budget of Torah and yeshivas with anger and malice.”
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