Netanyahu’s coalition at risk of collapsing after court ruling on military exemption

Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu is facing one of the most serious threats yet to his coalition government after the country’s supreme court ordered an end to government subsidies from Monday for many ultra-Orthodox men who do not serve in the army.

The ruling follows a series of delays by the government in presenting a proposal to the court aimed at enhancing the military enlistment of ultra-Orthodox men, who have historically been exempt from conscription.

The court has previously ruled the current system discriminatory and given the government until Monday to present a new plan, and until June 30th to pass it. Netanyahu, whose government includes parties supportive of and opposed to ultra-Orthodox enlistment, on Thursday asked the court for a 30-day extension to find a compromise.

Israel has mandatory army service, but for decades made an exemption for ultra-Orthodox Jews, also known as Haredi, who are allowed to continue full-time Torah study and live on government stipends.

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But as Israel’s armed forces wage a nearly six-month-old war in Gaza in which 500 soldiers have been killed, legislators from the government and the opposition have voiced a stance that places the onus of heightened military service obligations on the Haredi community, rather than imposing additional duties on those already in service.

Benny Gantz, a political rival of Netanyahu who has declared his willingness to resign from the emergency unity government over the issue, praised the court’s decision and said it recognised “the need for soldiers during a difficult war, and the need for everyone in our society to take part in the right to serve the country”.

The move could have deep political and social consequences. Netanyahu is struggling to bridge a major split over military service in the shaky national unity government cobbled together in the days after Hamas’s October 7th attack.

Supporters of a review of the exemption include the defence minister and other cabinet members managing the war, who predict months more fighting that will strain manpower and stoke public demands for more equitable call-ups.

The two ultra-Orthodox parties in Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist coalition, United Torah Judaism and Shas, denounced the ruling as a “mark of Cain”. Aryeh Deri, the head of Shas, called the court’s decision “unprecedented bullying of Torah students in the Jewish state”.

If the ultra-Orthodox parties leave the government, the country would be forced into new elections, and Netanyahu is trailing significantly in the polls.

An alternative plan, which seeks to extend the duration of military service for conscripts and raise the age for reservists while also urging an end to the customary exemptions granted to yeshiva students, has been rejected by the Haredi parties. Some Haredi men have said they would rather go to jail then enlist.

The exemption policy dates back to shortly after the founding of the state of Israel, when 400 yeshiva students were permitted to avoid conscription. As Haredi populations have increased – to about 12 per cent of the country’s 9 million citizens – tens of thousands avoid the military call-up and live on government stipends for religious study.

Last Saturday, Israel’s Sephardi chief rabbi, Yitzhak Yosef, said Haredim would leave Israel en masse if their exemption from compulsory service was not renewed.

In a letter to the supreme court on Thursday, Netanyahu asked the judges to defer the March 31st deadline for the government to come up with a new military conscription plan, saying additional time was needed for an agreement to be reached.

The judges did not respond to his request. – Guardian (additional reporting Reuters and AP)