The Israeli defense minister has given the green light to conscript ultra-Orthodox men into the army, despite the risk of inflaming tensions with key conservative parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government.
Israel’s supreme court issued a unanimous ruling last month declaring that the state had no authority to offer the current exemption for ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, men.
It found that yeshivas – Orthodox seminaries for Torah study – should be ineligible for state subsidies unless students enlisted in the military.
But after discussions with top military officials, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant approved an order on Tuesday for an initial screening and evaluation to determine potential recruits over the coming month.
Initial call-ups are sent to Israelis when they are over 16 years old and they usually begin military service at the age of 18. The defense ministry said it would immediately integrate around 3,000 Haredim in addition to the 1,800 it already has.
However, following the court’s ruling, Aryeh Deri, head of the Shas party and a close ally of Netanyahu said: “There is no power in the world that can cut off the people of Israel from studying the Torah.”
Echoing the criticism, United Torah Judaism said there was no legal basis for the ruling.
The decision to draft ultra-Orthodox Jews runs the risk of tearing the Israeli government apart. It also, according to government lawyers, would “tear Israeli society apart”.
On July 1 thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews took to the streets of Jerusalem to protest the court’s ruling and were heavily repressed by the police.
Netanyahu’s government has received global condemnation for its military assault on Gaza, most of all by human rights experts. The country is currently being investigated for the crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip by the International Court of Justice.
It found that yeshivas – Orthodox seminaries for Torah study – should be ineligible for state subsidies unless students enlisted in the military.
But after discussions with top military officials, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant approved an order on Tuesday for an initial screening and evaluation to determine potential recruits over the coming month.
Initial call-ups are sent to Israelis when they are over 16 years old and they usually begin military service at the age of 18. The defense ministry said it would immediately integrate around 3,000 Haredim in addition to the 1,800 it already has.
However, following the court’s ruling, Aryeh Deri, head of the Shas party and a close ally of Netanyahu said: “There is no power in the world that can cut off the people of Israel from studying the Torah.”
Echoing the criticism, United Torah Judaism said there was no legal basis for the ruling.
The decision to draft ultra-Orthodox Jews runs the risk of tearing the Israeli government apart. It also, according to government lawyers, would “tear Israeli society apart”.
On July 1 thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews took to the streets of Jerusalem to protest the court’s ruling and were heavily repressed by the police.
Netanyahu’s government has received global condemnation for its military assault on Gaza, most of all by human rights experts. The country is currently being investigated for the crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip by the International Court of Justice.
Source: Reuters, The New Arab, Al Jazeera, Jerusalem Post, The Guardian
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