Violence escalates in Israel amid ultra-Orthodox military draft protests

The most fundamental rift in Israeli politics is arguably not the wars it is fighting on multiple fronts, nor the international isolation stemming from its genocidal war in Gaza. Instead, the conscription of young ultra-Orthodox men into the military continues to divide the country’s major political parties and bring demonstrators to the streets.

Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men brought city centres across central Israel to a halt on Thursday night as they protested against the arrest of their fellow adherents for refusing conscription into the army.

Their refusal to serve in the military is not, however, out of a moral objection to Israel’s various wars, but instead because they view serving in the army as diluting their faith and drawing them away from studying it.

Protests by angry young ultra-Orthodox men have become regular occurrences across Israel. Violence is routine. Dozens of police officers and protesters have been injured, and scores more arrested for their involvement in the unrest, with the blockage of streets and closure of parts of city centres becoming usual.

The threat of losing parliamentary support over the issue from the two main ultra-Orthodox parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism (UTJ) has pushed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition to bring forward a bill to dissolve parliament, as well as align itself with what stands to be an unpopular bill going through parliament that, if successful, promises to enshrine the exemption of ultra-Orthodox religious students from the draft.

Praising the advancement of the bill, parliamentarian Yisrael Eichler of the UTJ described it as “a declaration of holy war against those who blaspheme God, persecute the Torah and oppose those who study it”, as fellow UTJ member of parliament Meir Porush referred to the bill’s opponents as “anti-Semites” and “enemies of the Torah and its students”.

Both said that Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties were compelled to bring forward the bill due to the “systematic persecution of Torah scholars” by “dictatorial jurists”, in a reference to members of Israel’s Supreme Court, whose longstanding opposition to their exemption has seen the homes of individual judges targeted for violence by protesters.

“I think ultra-Orthodox recruitment could be one of the main issues in the election campaign,” Israeli political analyst Nimrod Flaschenberg said. “It’s easy for politicians to target the draft exemption specifically, as society as a whole has grown more militaristic through the [Gaza] genocide,” he continued.