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An impending crisis over enlisting Haredi men into the Israeli army is threatening to undermine the governing coalition and splitting the nation.

Popular sentiment on the issue has shifted dramatically in Israel following two years of conflict, and this is now arguably the most divisive political risk facing the Prime Minister.

The Constitutional Battle

Legislators are currently considering a draft bill to abolish the deferment granted to Haredi students engaged in full-time religious study, instituted when the the nation was founded in 1948.

The deferment was ruled illegal by Israel's High Court of Justice almost 20 years ago. Temporary arrangements to continue it were officially terminated by the bench last year, pressuring the government to start enlisting the Haredi sector.

Roughly 24,000 enlistment orders were delivered last year, but only around 1,200 men from the community enlisted, according to military testimony shared with lawmakers.

Tensions Spill Into Public View

Friction is spilling onto the city centers, with lawmakers now deliberating a new conscription law to force yeshiva students into national service alongside other secular Israelis.

Two representatives were targeted this month by some extreme ultra-Orthodox protesters, who are incensed with parliament's discussion of the proposed law.

Recently, a elite police squad had to rescue enforcement personnel who were targeted by a large crowd of Haredi men as they sought to apprehend a alleged conscription dodger.

Such incidents have sparked the creation of a new alert system called "Emergency Alert" to spread word quickly through Haredi neighborhoods and summon demonstrators to stop detentions from taking place.

"This is a Jewish state," stated an activist. "One cannot oppose the Jewish faith in a Jewish country. It is a contradiction."

A World Separate

However the transformations sweeping across Israel have failed to penetrate the walls of the religious seminary in Bnei Brak, an ultra-Orthodox city on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

In the learning space, scholars sit in pairs to discuss Judaism's religious laws, their brightly coloured school notebooks popping against the rows of white shirts and head coverings.

"Come at one in the morning, and you will see half the guys are engaged in learning," the dean of the academy, Rabbi Tzemach Mazuz, said. "By studying Torah, we safeguard the soldiers in the field. This constitutes our service."

Haredi Jews maintain that continuous prayer and spiritual pursuit defend Israel's armed forces, and are as essential to its defense as its conventional forces. This conviction was accepted by Israel's politicians in the earlier decades, he said, but he admitted that Israel was changing.

Rising Public Pressure

The ultra-Orthodox population has grown substantially its proportion of the nation's citizens over the since the state's founding, and now constitutes around one in seven. An exemption that started as an deferment for several hundred yeshiva attendees evolved into, by the start of the 2023 war, a cohort of approximately 60,000 men left out of the conscription.

Opinion polls suggest support for drafting the Haredim is growing. A poll in July showed that 85% of non-Haredi Jews - even a significant majority in his own coalition allies - backed consequences for those who declined a draft order, with a clear majority in supporting cutting state subsidies, passports, or the franchise.

"It seems to me there are people who reside in this country without contributing," one military member in Tel Aviv explained.

"It is my belief, however religious you are, [it] should be an excuse not to perform service your state," stated a young woman. "As a citizen by birth, I find it quite ridiculous that you want to exempt yourself just to engage in religious study all day."

Voices from Inside the Community

Backing for extending the draft is also coming from observant Jews beyond the ultra-Orthodox sector, like Dorit Barak, who resides close to the seminary and highlights observant but non-Haredi Jews who do enlist in the army while also studying Torah.

"It makes me angry that ultra-Orthodox people don't serve in the army," she said. "It is unjust. I am also committed to the Jewish law, but there's a teaching in Hebrew - 'Safra and Saifa' – it represents the Torah and the guns together. This is the correct approach, until the arrival of peace."

She maintains a local tribute in Bnei Brak to soldiers from the area, both religious and secular, who were lost in conflict. Lines of images {