XPost: alt.military, alt.politics.homosexuality, sac.politics
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On 26 Jun 2024, "Mr. Black" <MisterBlack@gmail.com> posted some news:v5gtal$26298$5@solani.org:

Those pigs are ready for slaughter.

Israel’s supreme court has ruled that ultra-Orthodox Jewish men must be
drafted into military service, a politically explosive decision that
threatens the stability of Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government.

The unanimous ruling on Tuesday, from an expanded panel of nine judges,
upheld an interim decision last month 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.

The court ruled the state was carrying out “invalid selective enforcement, which represents a serious violation of the rule of law, and the principle according to which all individuals are equal before the law … In the midst
of a gruelling war, the burden of inequality is harsher than ever and
demands a solution.”

Ostensibly, the court decision ends a decades-old cultural and societal
row over the importance of Torah study in modern Israeli life, and who
should bear the burden of conscription. But the timing, in the midst of
the war in Gaza and as Netanyahu struggles to hold together a rightwing coalition that includes two ultra-Orthodox parties, is more likely to
inflame existing tensions between secular and religious elements of
society.

The powerful ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism (UTJ) parties,
key Netanyahu allies, have often threatened to quit his coalition and
force new elections if draft exemptions for their communities were ended. Netanyahu, facing corruption charges he denies, is believed to view
remaining in office as his best chance of avoiding prosecution. As such,
he is seen as hostage to the demands of his coalition partners.

Mandatory army service for Jewish citizens is a large part of the Israeli national ethos, but longstanding legal compromises have to date exempted
Haredi men, who instead continue full-time study of religious texts funded
by government stipends. Whether Haredi women serve is viewed as less controversial, as women are much less likely to be drafted into combat
units.

As the ultra-Orthodox population has grown – the community now makes up
13% of Israel and is projected to become 21% of the population by 2042 – military officers and reservists have become increasingly angry at the
status quo, which they say ensures the Haredi community is unfit to
contribute to the military or to the workforce.

During hearings, government lawyers told the court that forcing ultra-
Orthodox men to enlist would “tear Israeli society apart”. On Tuesday,
Yitzhak Goldknopf, a UTJ minister, called the decision “unfortunate and disappointing”. He told Kan Radio: “The state of Israel was created to be
a home for the Jewish people, and the Torah is the cornerstone of its existence. The holy Torah will win.”

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, a pro-democracy pressure
group and the principal petitioner in the case, welcomed the court’s
decision. “The high court’s decision is a historic triumph for the rule of
law and the principle of equal military service burden,” it said.

Benny Gantz, a centrist opposition politician and Netanyahu rival who quit
the war cabinet earlier this month citing disagreements with the prime
minister over issues including a hostage deal and ultra-Orthodox
conscription, blamed the impasse on the coalition.

He wrote on X: “My Haredi brothers, it isn’t you and it isn’t the court.
It’s the prime minister and the ministers in his government that haven’t
sought out solutions for the draft and serving the nation. Rather, [they
have sought out] solutions to help bolster the coalition. It is not too
late to reach an agreement.”

The court did not set quotas for ultra-Orthodox enlistment, leaving that
to the government and army.

Tens of thousands of Israeli troops have been called up since the war
began on 7 October, many for months on end, and 600 have been killed in
the fighting. Last week, citing troop shortages, the government backed a
draft bill that would raise the exemption age for reservists and expand
the length of service, causing widespread anger.

In an effort not to alienate Haredi parties and voters, successive Israeli governments have stalled on the issue of ultra-Orthodox conscription,
despite a 2017 supreme court ruling that the exemptions are
unconstitutional. The prime minister has been promoting a compromise bill tabled by a previous government in 2022, but it is now unclear whether he
will be able to postpone the issue again.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/25/israeli-court-rules- ultra-orthodox-men-can-be-drafted-for-military-service

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