Israeli army reserve activists protest military exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Haredi students outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in March after the High Court ordered a freeze on government funding of Haredi religious schools. The legal framework exempting the students from military service has become ever more hotly contested since the Gaza war sparked by the Oct. 7 attacks. File photo by Debbie Hill/UPI
June 25 (UPI) — Israel’s Supreme Court ordered a full draft of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men into the country’s military Tuesday and an immediate freeze on government funding of religious educational institutions, or yeshivas, that do not comply.
The unanimous decision by an extended nine-judge panel of the High Court of Justice in Jerusalem is likely to force a change in Israeli politics — and maybe fresh elections — over the issue that pits an influential minority of ultra-Orthodox adherents of Judaism who believe they should be exempt from conscription against secular society which argues the burden should be shared by all.
The government and the Knesset have been grappling with the issue for years but the ruling places renewed pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s coalition government, propped up by the two biggest ultra-Orthodox parties, which is already scrambling to avert a crisis to come up with a solution and quickly.
The court ruled that a June 2023 government instruction effectively extending an expired law allowing blanket exemptions of 63,000 eligible yeshiva students was illegal and that the government must act to begin conscripting ultra-Orthodox recruits into the Israel Defense Forces.
Males in the country’s ultra-Orthodox Haredi Jewish community have until now been exempt from military service, which is mandatory in Israel, if they are studying full-time at at a religious seminary.
“Non-enforcement of the provisions of the Security Service Law creates severe discrimination between those who are required to serve” and those exempted from army service, the court wrote.
“In these days, in the midst of a severe war, the burden of inequality is more acute than ever — and requires the promotion of a sustainable solution to this issue,” the decision reads.
“We determine that there is no legal basis for avoiding the recruitment of yeshiva students at this time; that the state must act to enforce the Law for Security Service on yeshiva students; that there is no legal authority to continue transferring the [financial] support for these students.”
The court also ruled that a cabinet resolution passed in April that allowed the government to interpret the law using private lawyers it had appointed was “without authority and void.”
The Movement for Quality Government, which brought the legal challenge, hailed the ruling as a “historic victory for the rule of law and the principle of equality in the burden of military service,” saying it meant the government must begin drafting all 63,000 eligible ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students immediately.
However, the court said the process should be gradual and in line with administrative law noting the IDF’s submission that it would be able to draft 3,000 Haredi yeshiva students in the 2024 enlistment year starting June 1.
Shas Party chairman Aryeh Deri condemned the decision saying the contribution of those who studied the teachings of the Talmud was equal to those fighting in Gaza or against Hezbollah on the border with Lebanon.
“There is no power in the world that can cut off the people of Israel from studying the Torah and anyone who has tried this in the past has failed miserably. No high-handed ruling will abolish the community of scholars in the land of Israel, which is the branch on which we all sit,” said the leader of the ultra-Orthodox party.
Tuesday’s ruling comes three months after the High Court first ordered the funding freeze voiding the legal framework for the traditional exemption, effective April 1 but with a rider deferring larger-scale enforcement of the measure through Aug. 9.
