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A looming political storm over drafting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the Israel Defense Forces is posing a risk to the administration and splitting the state.

The public mood on the matter has changed profoundly in Israel following two years of conflict, and this is now arguably the most explosive political issue facing Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Legal Struggle

Politicians are now debating a proposal to end the exemption granted to Haredi students engaged in full-time religious study, instituted when the State of Israel was declared in 1948.

This arrangement was struck down by the Supreme Court two decades ago. Interim measures to extend it were formally ended by the bench last year, compelling the government to begin drafting the Haredi sector.

Approximately 24,000 call-up papers were issued last year, but merely about 1,200 Haredi conscripts showed up, according to defense officials given to lawmakers.

Strains Erupt Onto the Streets

Friction is spilling onto the public squares, with elected officials now discussing a new conscription law to compel Haredi males into national service together with other Israeli Jews.

A pair of ultra-Orthodox lawmakers were confronted this month by some extreme ultra-Orthodox protesters, who are furious with the Knesset's deliberations of the bill.

In a recent incident, a elite police squad had to rescue army police who were surrounded by a big group of Haredi men as they tried to arrest a alleged conscription dodger.

These enforcement actions have prompted the establishment of a new alert system dubbed "Black Alert" to spread word quickly through ultra-Orthodox communities and call out demonstrators to stop detentions from taking place.

"Israel is a Jewish nation," stated an activist. "It's impossible to battle the Jewish faith in a Jewish state. It doesn't work."

A Realm Apart

Yet the changes blowing through Israel have not yet breached the environment of the religious seminary in a Haredi stronghold, an Haredi enclave on the edge of Tel Aviv.

Inside the classroom, teenage boys sit in pairs to debate the Torah, their brightly coloured school notebooks standing out against the lines of light-colored shirts and traditional skullcaps.

"Come at one in the morning, and you will see a significant portion are engaged in learning," the leader of the yeshiva, the spiritual guide, explained. "By studying Torah, we protect the soldiers on the front lines. This is our army."

Ultra-Orthodox believe that continuous prayer and Torah learning guard Israel's soldiers, and are as essential to its military success as its conventional forces. That belief was accepted by previous governments in the past, he said, but he acknowledged that Israel was changing.

Rising Public Pressure

The Haredi community has more than doubled its proportion of the country's people over the past seven decades, and now accounts for 14%. What began as an exemption for a small number of yeshiva attendees turned into, by the start of the 2023 war, a group of some 60,000 men left out of the draft.

Surveys indicate backing for ending the exemption is growing. A survey in July revealed that 85% of non-Haredi Jews - even almost three-quarters in his own coalition allies - favored sanctions for those who refused a call-up notice, with a firm majority in approving removing privileges, passports, or the electoral participation.

"It makes me feel there are individuals who reside in this nation without serving," one off-duty soldier in Tel Aviv explained.

"It is my belief, no matter how devout, [it] should be an reason not to perform service your country," added Gabby. "If you're born here, I find it somewhat unreasonable that you want to opt out just to engage in religious study all day."

Voices from Within Bnei Brak

Support for extending the draft is also found among religious Jews not part of the Haredi community, like one local resident, who resides close to the seminary and notes observant but non-Haredi Jews who do perform national service while also maintaining their faith.

"It makes me angry that the Haredim don't enlist," she said. "It's unfair. I am also committed to the Jewish law, but there's a proverb in Hebrew - 'Safra and Saifa' – it signifies the Torah and the weapons together. That is the path, until the messianic era."

Ms Barak runs a modest remembrance site in the neighborhood to soldiers from the area, both from all backgrounds, who were fallen in war. Rows of images {