JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Ending the military exemption for religious students is becoming a political issue for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as his coalition is torn apart over the issue and Israeli society demands a fairer distribution of the costs of the war against Hamas.
The government initially had until March 31 to pass a law resolving the problem debated for decades between the ultra-Orthodox and other parties, but Benjamin Netanyahu asked the Supreme Court at the last minute to extend this deadline by 30 days.
If the Supreme Court rejects the request, the military exemption for religion students will end Monday, April 1. The institution has not yet responded to the Prime Minister but published a provisional decision on Thursday ordering the government to suspend from April 1 the payment of allowances to religious students likely to do their military service.
The stakes are high for Benjamin Netanyahu: public opinion is in favor of ending the exemptions, but his government includes two ultra-Orthodox (or Haredim) parties which could, by leaving the coalition, trigger new elections. Opinion polls show the current Prime Minister losing.
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On Thursday, these two parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, opposed the latest decision of the Supreme Court, without threatening to leave the coalition.
Conversely, those close to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who include the centrist Benny Gantz, expected to win in the event of early elections, are pleading for the enlistment of more Israelis.
Yoav Gallant recently declared that any new law on military service must be supported by all parties, suggesting that he would oppose any extension of the current exemption.
EXISTENTIAL BATTLE
In fact, opinion polls show that a very large part of the population is in favor of ending the exemption, while many Israelis believe that the war against Hamas is a war on which the future of Israel depends. Israel: more than 300,000 reservists joined the ranks of the IDF after October 7.
The issue dates back to Israel’s origins, in 1948, when David Ben-Gurion exempted 400 students from Haredi communities from military service, hoping to revive an exegetical tradition virtually obliterated by the Holocaust.
This exemption became increasingly problematic as Haredi communities grew in importance. The ultra-Orthodox, whose birth rate is high, now represent 13% of Israel’s population, a share that could reach 30% within 40 years.
Haredim fear that military service will erode the community’s strong religious identity, and few ultra-Orthodox serve in the army.
The exemption is one of many points of friction between these communities and the rest of Israeli society. Haredi men generally devote their lives to religious study, and live on their wives’ meager salaries, donations, and social assistance – financed by Israeli taxpayers.
Resentment towards ultra-Orthodox communities has increased since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip.
(Reporting James Mackenzie, French version Corentin Chappron, editing by Kate Entringer)
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