While the Israeli army needs to mobilize new soldiers, the case of ultra-Orthodox Jews, until now exempt from military service, raises questions in the country.
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This is the first warning shot from the Israeli Supreme Court, the highest court in the country, against the military exemption from which ultra-Orthodox Jews have benefited for years. Since Monday, April 1, students of Yeshivotte, these religious schools, of age to go to the army, that is to say between 18 and 24 years old, will no longer receive subsidies to study Torah. At the end of this punitive policy, there is what the Hardeim – those who fear God – fear the most: being forcibly conscripted into the army.
Tela-Shomer district, east of Tel Aviv. Black hats, long coats, around thirty ultra-Orthodox young people wait in single file, paper in hand, for the opening of the army recruitment office: “It’s a document to be exempt. You present it and you are exempt for one year. There, you see, there is the signature of the rabbi and that of the applicant.” Like Haïm, they are all between 18 and 24 years old, the age for military service, and every year they return to the same place, on the same date and always with the same request.
“We are the ones who watch over them”
“I study Torah, so I won’t go to the army.” The young man speaks for the group: “Without our work on the Torah, the soldiers could not exist. It is we who watch over them thanks to our studies of the sacred book.” The Army of God at the service of the National Army. The Ministry of Defense has estimated the need for men at 7,000 in the very short term.
The ultra-Orthodox of military service age are ten times more. So, with the war, the outlook of civil society changed: “We see how many soldiers were killed or injured. We need more soldiers.” Rivka lost friends in Gaza and her brother was seriously injured.
This researcher, specialist in ultra-Orthodox society, is a believer, a traditionalist and she understands, despite the tragedies that affect her personally, the state of mind of the most extreme religious people: “I think the ultra-Orthodox are afraid, not necessarily of being killed, but rather of being secularized. But the ultraorthodox are sincerely concerned. They pray, they try to do things their own way, but they know it’s not enough.”
“They are aware that the Israelis are very angry with them.”
The response of one of Israel’s greatest rabbis shocked a large part of the population less than a month ago. Yitzhak Yosef claimed that if forced to serve in the army, the ultra-Orthodox would leave the country. The government can still propose a bill to adjust their military service and save its coalition made up of ultra-Orthodox parties. This project must be validated by the Supreme Court. If this is not the case, financial sanctions against students of religious schools could be further tightened and recruitment into the army be imposed by force. Next deadline: August 9.