“The Torah is Israel’s secret weapon against all enemies”, thunders Aryeh Deri, leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, which wants to put the Haredim – the Jews who apply religious precepts in the most extremist way – and the Israeli soldiers on the same level committed against Hamas and Hezbollah. The comment comes after the historic ruling of the Supreme Court in Israel, a ruling destined to create new tensions and which threatens the stability of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. The Court ruled unanimously that, after decades of exemption, the army must begin conscripting ultra-Orthodox Jews. For the nine judges – including two ultra-conservatives, religious practitioners – there is no longer a legal basis for “granting total exemption from compulsory military service to students of yeshivahs” (religious schools), who have so far avoided conscription, while the others are fighting in Gaza and on the border with Lebanon.
«A historic victory», rejoices the «Movement for the quality of government», the group whose petition led to the ruling of the High Court. The sentence concerns a total of 67 thousand young males who practice the most traditional and extremist Judaism, defended by the ultra-Orthodox parties that support the Netanyahu executive and by ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir. And the two leaders of the far religious right could put the government coalition at risk now that the judges have deemed “illegal” the order not to enlist the Haredim, imposed by the executive on the army in 2023 and its precedents. Thousands of Israelis have been fighting for their military involvement for months, convinced of the principle established by the Court, that is, that the exemption from compulsory military service for the ultra-religious represents “an inequality whose burden is even more serious in the midst of a harsh war”. This is why they took to the streets, as the ultra-Orthodox did to defend their status.
Supporting the secular and moderate Israelis is the opposition leader, Yair Lapid, who after decades of conflict on the issue, asks the government to immediately begin the mass conscription of yeshivah students, as the Court wants: «The Torah is not an excuse to escape and the Talmud is not an excuse to refuse”, he explains, also citing the texts of Judaism. Yet Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef has been clear in recent days: “If you force us to join the army, we will move abroad – he said during the sermon in the Yazdim synagogue in Jerusalem – Death is still preferable to a military uniform.”
Netanyahu is in serious trouble. Also because the ruling also prohibited the State from financing ultra-Orthodox religious schools for students who attend them in place of military service. The prime minister could also return to legislate for the Haredim, but several members of his own party, the Likud, have already made it known that they would not vote for the measure while thousands of Israelis are called to the front to risk their lives. And already last night the Attorney General’s office gave orders to immediately enlist 3,000 ultra-Orthodox people from July 1st.
The air is getting heavier and heavier in Israel, after almost 9 months of war. The army announced that it had killed 13 family members of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in an attack in Gaza, including his sister Zaher, who had no role in the movement. Yet the tensions between prime minister and military leaders do not subside.
According to Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post, the prime minister’s wife, Sara Netanyahu, in a meeting with the hostages’ families accused the IDF leaders of an attempted coup against her husband. The news was denied by two former kidnappers present at the event. But it is clear that the climate around the head of government is increasingly poisoned.
