Israel is heading toward a major political showdown over legislation that would require ultra-Orthodox Jewish men to serve in the military, threatening to destabilize the governing coalition and intensify social divisions across the country.
After two years of war, public opinion on the issue has shifted sharply. What was once a longstanding political compromise has become one of the most volatile challenges confronting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Lawmakers are now debating a bill that would end the exemption granted to ultra-Orthodox men who engage in full-time religious study—an arrangement established at Israel’s founding in 1948. Nearly two decades ago, Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled the exemption unconstitutional. Temporary extensions kept it alive until the court ended them last year, leaving the government legally obligated to begin drafting members of the ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, community.
Although the army issued roughly 24,000 draft notices last year, military officials told parliament that only about 1,200 Haredi men actually reported for service.
Tensions linked to the proposed legislation have erupted in the streets. Two Haredi lawmakers have been attacked by extremist ultra-Orthodox protesters, furious that parliament is even considering the draft law. And last week, a special Border Police unit was forced to rescue Military Police personnel when they were surrounded by a large crowd while attempting to arrest an alleged draft-evader.
These confrontations have spurred the creation of a rapid-alert network known as “Black Alert”, designed to mobilize protesters instantly whenever arrests of draft-evaders are underway.
The push for broader conscription also sparked a massive demonstration in Jerusalem last month, where tens of thousands of Haredi men rallied. Many see the draft debate as part of a much larger struggle over Israel’s identity—how religious the state should be, and what role Jewish law ought to play in public life.
“We’re a Jewish country,” said protester Shmuel Orbach. “You can’t fight against Judaism in a Jewish country. It doesn’t work.”
Yet inside the Kisse Rahamim yeshiva in Bnei Brak—an ultra-Orthodox enclave outside Tel Aviv—the upheaval feels distant. In classrooms lined with white shirts, black skullcaps, and brightly colored notebooks, teenage students study religious law in pairs, their voices rising and falling in debate.
“Come here at one in the morning and half the boys will still be studying Torah,” said the yeshiva’s leader, Rabbi Tzemach Mazuz, in what his office described as his first-ever interview with foreign media and with a female journalist. “Through Torah study, we protect the soldiers wherever they are. This is our army.”
Many in the ultra-Orthodox community believe that continual prayer and religious learning offer spiritual protection for Israel’s fighters—support as essential, they argue, as tanks or aircraft. Rabbi Mazuz acknowledged that attitudes in the country are shifting.
“Today, many in the government and Knesset have distanced themselves from religion,” he said. “They claim yeshiva students are lazy, which is false. In Tel Aviv there are tens of thousands of draft-dodgers—why don’t they take them? Why attack yeshiva students?”
In fact, Tel Aviv was among the top contributors of soldiers during the recent war. But the intense burden placed on conscripts and reservists over the past two years has sharpened national scrutiny of those who do not serve—and heightened calls for everyone to share equally in the country’s defense.
