{"id":290154,"date":"2024-06-26T07:37:37","date_gmt":"2024-06-26T07:37:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=290154"},"modified":"2024-06-27T06:35:43","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T06:35:43","slug":"israel-court-ends-draft-exemptions-for-ultra-orthodox-jews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=290154","title":{"rendered":"Israel court ends draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jews"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">Maayan Lubell \u2013 Reuters June 25, 2024<\/h1>\n<div id=\"attachment_289890\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-289890\" class=\"wpa-warning wpa-image-missing-alt size-full wp-image-289890\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Ultra-Orthodox-Jews-protest-IDF-draft.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"315\" data-warning=\"Missing alt text\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Ultra-Orthodox-Jews-protest-IDF-draft.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Ultra-Orthodox-Jews-protest-IDF-draft-480x236.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 640px, 100vw\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-289890\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ultra Orthodox Jews protest IDF draft plans<\/p><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>Court ruling is political headache for PM Netanyahu<\/li>\n<li>Ultra-Orthodox conscription waiver annoyed many Israelis<\/li>\n<li>Overstretched military says it needs more conscripts<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>JERUSALEM, June 25 (Reuters) &#8211; Israel&#8217;s Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the state must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students into the military, a decree which creates new political strains for embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n<p>Netanyahu&#8217;s Likud party said the Supreme Court&#8217;s ruling was &#8220;perplexing,&#8221; given ongoing efforts in parliament to agree on a new conscription law that would address the problem<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/middle-east\/netanyahu-back-partisan-form-first-israeli-tv-town-hall-war-2024-06-24\/\">The prime minister&#8217;s<\/a> coalition government relies on two <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/middle-east\/ultra-orthodox-israelis-resist-push-military-service-2024-03-29\/\">ultra-Orthodox parties<\/a> that regard conscription exemptions as key to keeping their constituents in religious seminaries and out of a melting-pot army that might test their customs.<\/p>\n<p>Leaders of those parties said they were disappointed with the ruling but issued no immediate threat to the government.<\/p>\n<p>However, the prospect of the military, backed by Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, starting to draft seminary students could widen cracks in Netanyahu&#8217;s increasingly brittle coalition<\/p>\n<p>The ultra-Orthodox conscription waiver has become increasingly charged in Israel as its armed forces are overstretched by a multi-front war <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/israel-hamas\/\">with Hamas in Gaza<\/a> and Hezbollah in Lebanon.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At the height of a difficult war, the burden of inequality is more than ever acute,&#8221; the court&#8217;s unanimous ruling said.<\/p>\n<p>Israelis are bound by law to serve in the military from the age of 18 for 24-32 months. Members of Israel&#8217;s 21 percent Arab minority are mostly exempt, though some do serve, and ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students have also been largely exempt for decades.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Adding further pressure on the ultra-Orthodox coalition parties, the ruling also barred seminaries from receiving state subsidies if scholars avoid service without deferrals or exemptions.<\/p>\n<p>Education Minister Yoav Kisch voiced hope that agreement could be reached on a compromise.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Not in a civil war, not in a fight that will tear apart Israeli society in the middle of a tough war. It&#8217;s possible to do it together,&#8221; Kisch said.<\/p>\n<p>Political scientist Gideon Rahat, of the bi-partisan Israel Democracy Institute, said the ruling had piled fresh pressure on Netanyahu. &#8220;He will try to buy time and make every effort to remove this issue from the public agenda,&#8221; said Rahat.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>EXISTENTIAL<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>While the military has said it is in dire need of more conscripts, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/middle-east\/can-israels-ultra-orthodox-military-volunteers-help-defuse-battle-over-2024-04-13\/\">ultra-Orthodox<\/a> leaders see the exemptions as existential for preserving their traditions.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s no judge there who understands the value of Torah study and its contribution to the people of Israel throughout the generations,&#8221; said ultra-Orthodox lawmaker Moshe Gafni, who heads the powerful parliamentary Finance Committee, referring to study of Judaism&#8217;s holy books.<\/p>\n<p>Opposition parties welcomed the ruling.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s nothing Jewish about dodging military service,&#8221; said opposition lawmaker and former defence minister Avigdor Lieberman.<\/p>\n<p>For more than six years, the state had been asking the Supreme Court for more time to pass a new conscription law to resolve the issue.<\/p>\n<p>The new draft bill being hammered out in parliament could resolve the crisis if wide agreement is reached. Otherwise, it could have the potential to bring Netanyahu&#8217;s government down.<\/p>\n<p>Gallant, who has taken up independent positions against Netanyahu on more than one occasion, wants a more equal sharing of the burden, a sentiment shared by several other lawmakers in Netanyahu&#8217;s Likud party and among most of the opposition.<\/p>\n<p>The military waiver for the ultra-Orthodox has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/middle-east\/israels-politicians-squabble-some-soldiers-voice-their-anger-2024-03-26\/\">sparked protests<\/a> in recent months by Israelis angry that they are shouldering the risk of fighting the war in Gaza. In city streets, ultra-Orthodox demonstrators have blocked roads under the banner &#8220;death before conscription&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The waivers also have wider economic impact. The ultra-Orthodox make up 13% of Israel&#8217;s 10 million population, a figure expected to reach 19% by 2035 due to their high birth rates.<\/p>\n<p>The conscription waiver keeps some of the community in seminaries and out of the workforce, hindering economic growth and placing a welfare burden on middle-class taxpayers.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/middle-east\/israel-supreme-court-rules-religious-seminary-students-must-be-drafted-military-2024-06-25\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The court ruling will help ease the manpower shortage faced by Israeli Defence Force. The ultra-Orthodox make up 13% of Israel&#8217;s 10 million population,  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-290154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=290154"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":290157,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290154\/revisions\/290157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=290154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=290154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=290154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}