Israel’s Supreme Court ruled in late June that there was no legal ground for conscription exemptions for the religious community
Israeli police in Jerusalem have used force to break up a demonstration by ultra-Orthodox Jews who were protesting against the conscription of religious students into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
The community had been exempt from military service since the foundation of the state in 1948. However, the country’s top court recently declared this practice to be devoid of any legal basis.
The decades-long agreement between the Israeli government and the Haredi community had been extended several times until it expired last year. Amid the ongoing military operation against Hamas in Gaza, the Supreme Court did away with the privileges on June 25.
Military service is obligatory for most Israeli citizens, with men and women alike required to serve between 24 and 32 months in the IDF. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant estimated in June that the IDF urgently needed 10,000 additional recruits.
On Wednesday morning, scores of ultra-Orthodox men gathered outside an IDF recruitment office where draftees who receive summonses are required to report.
They staged a sit-in in the middle of the street, blocking traffic. The protesters were carrying placards, chanting slogans and religious incantations. “We will die and not enlist, Nazis,” and “To prison and not to the army” were among the messages, as reported by the Times of Israel.
There was a heavy police presence at the site, including mounted officers in riot gear. As the demonstrators refused to vacate the area, law enforcement personnel began pinning individual protesters to the ground and hauling them away.
At one point, the ultra-Orthodox men broke through police cordons, with more scuffles ensuing. Videos from the site suggest that at least one protester sustained injuries.
The number of Haredim Jews in Israel is estimated to exceed one million. These religious fundamentalists have traditionally tried to limit their contact with the more secular Jewish majority. The ultra-Orthodox community argues that military service would interrupt their study of the Torah, disrupt their lengthy prayer times, and make contact with the opposite sex inevitable.
