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A looming crisis over enlisting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the Israel Defense Forces is threatening to undermine the administration and dividing the nation.

Popular sentiment on the issue has changed profoundly in Israel following two years of conflict, and this is now arguably the most explosive political challenge facing Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Judicial Conflict

Lawmakers are now debating a piece of legislation to end the special status awarded to ultra-Orthodox men enrolled in Torah study, established when the the nation was established in 1948.

That exemption was struck down by Israel's High Court of Justice in the early 2000s. Stopgap solutions to continue it were finally concluded by the judiciary last year, pressuring the administration to commence conscription of the Haredi sector.

Approximately 24,000 draft notices were delivered last year, but merely about 1,200 ultra-Orthodox - or Haredi - draftees reported for duty, according to army data shared with lawmakers.

Tensions Spill Onto the Streets

Tensions are erupting onto the streets, with lawmakers now discussing a new conscription law to compel ultra-Orthodox men into army duty alongside other Israeli Jews.

Two representatives were confronted this month by some extreme ultra-Orthodox protesters, who are incensed with parliament's discussion of the bill.

And last week, a specialized force had to rescue army police who were targeted by a sizeable mob of Haredi men as they attempted to detain a suspected draft-evader.

These arrests have sparked the creation of a new alert system named "Emergency Alert" to send out instant alerts through the religious sector and summon protesters to stop detentions from taking place.

"We're a Jewish country," remarked an activist. "One cannot oppose the Jewish faith in a nation founded on Jewish identity. That is untenable."

A World Separate

However the shifts blowing through Israel have failed to penetrate the walls of the Kisse Rahamim yeshiva in a Haredi stronghold, an religious community on the fringes of Tel Aviv.

Within the study hall, young students learn in partnerships to discuss the Torah, their distinctive notepads standing out against the lines of white shirts and traditional skullcaps.

"Come at one in the morning, and you will see a significant portion are studying Torah," the dean of the seminary, Rabbi Tzemach Mazuz, noted. "Through religious study, we safeguard the troops wherever they are. This is how we contribute."

Haredi Jews maintain that constant study and religious study defend Israel's armed forces, and are as crucial to its defense as its tanks and air force. That belief was endorsed by Israel's politicians in the previous eras, the rabbi said, but he acknowledged that the nation is evolving.

Rising Societal Anger

The Haredi community has significantly increased its share of Israel's population over the past seven decades, and now constitutes a sizable minority. What began as an exemption for a small number of yeshiva attendees evolved into, by the beginning of the 2023 war, a cohort of approximately 60,000 men exempt from the national service.

Polling data show approval of drafting the Haredim is rising. Research in July revealed that 85% of the broader Jewish public - including almost three-quarters in the Prime Minister's political base - supported consequences for those who ignored a draft order, with a clear majority in approving removing privileges, passports, or the electoral participation.

"I feel there are individuals who reside in this country without contributing," one serviceman in Tel Aviv commented.

"In my view, however religious you are, [it] should be an reason not to perform service your state," stated a young woman. "Being a native, I find it rather absurd that you want to avoid service just to engage in religious study all day."

Views from Inside a Religious City

Advocacy of ending the exemption is also coming from traditional Jews outside the ultra-Orthodox sector, like one local resident, who resides close to the academy and points to non-Haredi religious Jews who do enlist in the army while also engaging in religious study.

"It makes me angry that the Haredim don't perform military service," she said. "This creates inequality. I also believe in the Torah, but there's a proverb in Jewish tradition - 'Safra and Saifa' – it represents the Torah and the guns together. That is the path, until the arrival of peace."

She manages a small memorial in her city to soldiers from the area, both observant and non-observant, who were lost in conflict. Rows of faces {