Middle East Crisis: Israeli Supreme Court Ends Military Exemption For Ultra-Orthodox Jews – As It Happened
Israel court ends draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jews
Here is more on Israel’s supreme court ruling that the government must draft ultra- Orthodox Jewish seminary students to the conscript military:
Israel’s supreme court ruled on Tuesday that the state must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary into the military, a decree with the potential to divide prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition.
Netanyahu’s government relies on two ultra- Orthodox parties that regard conscription exemptions as key to keeping their constituents in religious seminaries and away from a melting-pot military that might test their conservative 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 the seminary students could widen cracks in Netanyahu’s increasingly brittle coalition.
The ultra-Orthodox conscription waiver has become especially charged as Israel’s 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.
Most Jewish Israelis are bound by law to serve in the military from the age of 18, for three years for men and two years for women. Members of Israel’s 21 percent Arab minority are exempt, though some do serve, and ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students have also been largely exempt for decades.
The law governing the exemption for seminary students 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. The ruling also barred seminaries from receiving state subsidies if scholars avoid service without deferrals or exemptions.
With a new law on the issue now being discussed in parliament, education minister Yoav Kisch, of Netanyahu’s Likud Party, voiced hope agreement could be reached on a compromise.
“Not in a civil war, not in a fight that will tear apart Israeli society in the middle of a tough war. It’s possible to do it together,” Kisch said.
