Jewish World Update Sep/Oct 2024
Israel’s High Court Rules Government Must Draft Ultra-Orthodox
by FOI Staff
Israeli institutions have until April 1, 2025, to comply with the country’s Supreme Court ruling to draft ultra-Orthodox men into the military before they lose their government funding. Israel’s High Court of Justice decision handed down in June has rocked the country, and its full effects still remain to be seen.
In a monumental, historic decision, the court unanimously ruled 9–0 that the government must draft ultra-Orthodox men. Until now, the haredim, as they are called, have been exempt from military service. Currently, 63,000 haredi men are eligible for the draft.
The Supreme Court ruled that “at this time there is no legal framework that makes it possible to distinguish between students of the yeshivas [religious schools] and others” regarding mandatory military service. It ordered a full draft of the haredim into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and, reported The Jerusalem Post, “the freezing of all funds for institutions which do not comply starting as of April 1 [2025].”
Israel’s ultra-Orthodox consider military service a distraction from Torah study (which they do to the exclusion of almost everything else) and a threat to their way of life. However, Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre and the current war have heightened public demands that the haredim contribute to the nation’s defense.
According to the IDF website, every Israeli “who is Jewish, Druze or Circassian” must enter military service at age 18. Men must serve a minimum of 32 months and women 24 months.
Currently, yeshiva students receive temporary deferrals until age 26, when they are no longer eligible for service, which the court called “unconstitutional.” The ruling also accuses the government of “seriously undermining the rule of law, and the principle according to which all individuals are equal before the law,” by continuing to delay haredi enlistment.
The haredi parties for years have made up the most stable element of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc. He won their allegiance by funding their seminaries and providing other benefits. Haredi political leaders have told Netanyahu that if he passes a law with which they don’t agree, they will quit his government; but if the court imposes a solution, they will stick by him.
Troy Osher Fritzhand of JNS.org reported that Jerusalem Affairs and Jewish Heritage Minister Meir Porush (United Torah Judaism Party) blasted the decision, saying, “There is no power in the world that can force a person whose soul longs to study Torah to refrain from it.” Shas Party chairman Aryeh Deri concurred: “The Jewish people survived persecutions, pogroms and wars only thanks to maintaining its uniqueness—the Torah and the mitzvot. This is our secret weapon against all enemies, as promised by the Creator of the World.”
However, some applauded the ruling. Labor Party chief Yair Golan tweeted, “The duty of security and civil service should apply to every young Israeli man and woman, regardless of religion, race and gender.”
Timesofisrael.com reported that Porush insisted yeshiva students will “continue to study Torah as they used to in the country that Ben-Gurion declared,” while his fellow party member MK Yisrael Eichler called the court a “dictatorial body that seized power from the hands of the elected government” and “seeks to force a religious war on the streets.”
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