Ultra-Orthodox minister breaks ranks, says some Haredi youth must be drafted
Shas distances itself from Interior Minister Moshe Arbel’s call, says only rabbis of the Council of Torah Sages can decide policy on the thorny issue
An Israeli minister said Thursday that after Hamas’s October 7 attack, there was no longer a “moral” justification to exempt ultra-Orthodox Jewish men who were not studying in a yeshiva from army service, breaking a long-standing taboo within his community.
Israel’s ruling coalition has been scrambling to find a compromise on drafting ultra-Orthodox men following an order last month from the country’s top court, effectively striking down the decades-old exemption as of April 1.
Interior Minister Moshe Arbel, of the ultra-Orthodox party Shas, said that “the reality after October 7 is that the ultra-Orthodox community must understand that it is no longer possible to continue like this.”
With the country at war for more than six months since the unprecedented Hamas attack, Arbel told a podcast that ultra-Orthodox leaders needed to show “courage” and declare that “those whose status has been revoked and who are eligible for conscription must be part of those bearing the burden.”
According to national broadcaster Kan, Arbel was referring to yeshiva students who were denied the status of full-time Torah students by the Vaad HaYeshivot (Yeshiva Committee), a body that coordinates between ultra-Orthodox yeshivas and the Defense Ministry in matters of service deferments.
Military service is compulsory for most Israelis, but ultra-Orthodox men in full-time religious study have been largely exempt due to a policy that dates back to the state’s early years.
Around the time of Israel’s establishment in 1948, this policy only affected some 400 yeshiva students. The measure today concerns around 66,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged between 18 and 26.
The issue has long divided Israeli society, with parts of it demanding that the ultra-Orthodox community contribute to the country’s security like others.
The court order, following years of delays, means the army can now call up ultra-Orthodox men for service, but that has yet to happen. Religious women are generally not subject to conscription orders.
Shas, one of two ultra-Orthodox parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, distanced itself from Arbel’s remarks as it hopes to agree to a compromise on the thorny issue with other factions.
“The subject of the conscription law and the status of yeshiva students is entrusted exclusively to the rabbis of the Council of Torah Sages and is managed by the movement’s chairman Rabbi Aryeh Deri and his representative to the negotiations, Rabbi Ariel Atias,” the party said in a statement.
“The movement’s representatives were instructed not to comment on the issue at all,” the statement continued, adding that its official position will be communicated “exclusively” via official party channels.
Arbel’s comments echoed those of his fellow Shas Minister Ya’akov Margi, who told the Kikar Hashabbat website in February that members of the Haredi community not engaged in full-time Torah study should be drafted “by force.”
However, both ministers’ rhetoric stands at odds with that of Rabbi Moshe Maya, a senior member of Shas’s leading Council of Torah Sages — the body that directs the party — who recently stated that even those who do not learn full-time in yeshiva should not serve in the IDF.
On Thursday thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews rallied in Jerusalem to protest the plans to remove the exemption, which according to signs carried by the demonstrators would lead to “the destruction of yeshivas”.
Israeli men are recruited for 32 months, and women for two years.
The ultra-Orthodox community numbers nearly 1.3 million people, or about 14 percent of Israel’s population, and is fast growing with fertility rates that far exceed the national average, according to the Israel Democracy Institute think tank.
Some ultra-Orthodox men including Arbel have served in the military, but most members of the close-knit community vehemently oppose it.
They argue that serving in a mixed-gender environment or with non-religious people is incompatible with their values.
