Israeli High Court orders state to conscript yeshiva students
Israel’s High Court of Justice unanimously ordered the state to begin drafting yeshiva students into army service on Tuesday in a verdict that could potentially topple the governing coalition.
Israeli soldiers and Haredim at the entrance to an Israel Defence Forces recruitment office in Ramat Gan on June 25, 2023. Photo by Yossi Zeliger/TPS
“The state does not have the authority to order a blanket avoidance of their conscription, and it must act in accordance with the provisions of the Security Service Law,” said the ruling, written by Interim Court President Uzi Vogelman. “In the absence of a legal framework for exemption from conscription, it is not possible to continue to transfer support funds to yeshiva and inclusive for students who did not receive an exemption or whose military service was not postponed.
“The state must act to enforce the provisions of the Security Service Law on yeshiva students.”
The two Orthodox parties in the governing coalition have threatened to topple the government over the issue.
Rabbi Meir Porush of the United Torah Judaism party said, “The High Court ruling inevitably leads to two states here. One, this is the country that is being run as it is, now. And another country where the members of the yeshivas will continue to study Torah as they used to in the country that [former prime minister David] Ben Gurion declared. There is no power in the world that can force a person whose soul longs to study Torah to refrain from it.”
The Movement for the Quality Government in Israel, the lead petitioner, called on Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to immediately begin drafting the yeshiva students.
“The High Court’s decision is a historic triumph for the rule of law and the principle of equal military service burden,” the organization said in a statement. “The ruling affirms our position that the ongoing discrimination in army conscription cannot continue, and that the time has come for equality.”
Military service is compulsory for all Israeli citizens. However, Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, and the country’s leading rabbis agreed to a status quo that deferred military service for Orthodox men studying in yeshivot, or religious institutions. At the time, no more than several hundred men were studying in yeshivot.
However, the Orthodox community has grown significantly since Israel’s founding. In January 2023, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported that Haredim are Israel’s fastest-growing community and projected it would constitute 16% of the population by the end of the decade. According to the Israel Democracy Institute, the number of yeshiva students exceeded 138,000 in 2021.
That demographic growth has fueled passionate debates about “sharing the burden” of military service, the status of religious study in a Jewish society, and Haredi integration.
The war against Hamas, now in its eighth month, has stretched the army’s manpower needs, sharpening the national debate. The Press Service of Israel found that Haredi attitudes towards military service have softened since Hamas’s October 7 attacks.
Good decision by the High Court. Everyone dislikes military service “shurkers”