- History
- Middle East
- Revitalizing History
Since Israel’s founding, exemptions for Ultra-Orthodox men from mandatory military service were intended as a limited measure to preserve religious study in the aftermath of national crisis. Over decades, demographic growth and coalition politics transformed this exception into a durable policy, even as the burden of national defense fell increasingly on the rest of society. Repeated interventions by Israel’s Supreme Court failed to produce a sustainable legal framework, leaving the state caught between formal conscription law and political reality. After the Israel–Gaza War, the conscription debate has become a defining issue for Israel’s future—testing the country’s ability to reconcile religious pluralism, equality before the law, and national security.
- Since Israel's founding, an increasing number of Orthodox men are exempted each year from mandatory military service. A perfect storm of factors culminating during the recent two year Israel Gaza War transformed it into an outright political crisis. Its roots can be traced to Israel's War of Independence. When senior Jewish religious leaders asked Israel's first prime Minister David Binion, to exempt ultra orthodox men from military service so that they could continue attending Yeshivas special schools dedicated to the constant study of Jewish religious texts, Ben approved the exemption of some 400 ultraorthodox men. And, but recognize that at some point, that number would grow and that the widespread exemption would have to stop decades later. The issue remains unresolved. By the late 1970s, the ultra-Orthodox minority had become a substantial political force. At the same time as the number of exempted individuals grew substantially enabling the Ultraorthodox party to play the kingmakers in Israeli parliamentary politics. In 1998, when the number of exempted individuals had reached almost 30,000 men, Israel's Supreme Court finally intervened. It instructed the Knesset, Israel's parliament to find a permanent legal solution for the exemption policy, which balanced the needs of the ultra-Orthodox population on the one hand, and the need for societal equality on the other de nset approves such law, but its provisions were still largely aligned with the practice of exemption and the status quo exemption numbers spiked. And in 2012, the Supreme Court decreed that the Knesset must approve yet a new law. The Supreme Court granted extension after extension. And even now, Israel still has no effective exemption law, which means that the general conscription law also applies to the Ultraorthodox population, but the government relies on ultraorthodox support and cannot realistically exempt Ultraorthodox men in full force. Given the burden the rest of Israel's population carried during the war and will carry in future security challenges, the issue is likely to be among the most decisive ones for the Israeli public. In the upcoming 2026 elections, a successful resolution of Israel's conscription conundrum is vital for social cion and national security, and should include gradual and steady integration of the ultra orthodox population into the society, the economy, and military or national service. To achieve that new political realignment inside Israel must prioritize long-term solutions for the country's complex relations to religion and state.
