Israeli Supreme Court: Religious people cannot be exempted from conscription

Israel’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled Tuesday that religious Jews must be enlisted in the army and that religious schools shouldn’t receive government funding if their students do not enroll in the military.

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation said, “The court unanimously ruled by a panel of 9 judges that there is no legal framework that allows religious school students not to be recruited into the Israeli army”.

“The court also decided that in the absence of a legal framework for exemption from conscription, it’s not possible to continue to transfer support funds to religious schools and to students who have not received an exemption or whose military service has not been postponed”.

The verdict was issued in response to a long list of petitions calling for the recruitment of religious school students on the same basis as other Israelis and the withdrawal of budgets from institutions whose students aren’t recruited.

Observers estimate that the Israeli Supreme Court’s decision will have an impact on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which includes the two largest religious parties and is seeking to pass a law in the Knesset to grant exemptions to religious people.

Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the right-wing opposition Yisrael Beitenu party, said in a post on X, “After years of defamation and attempts to reach compromises and understandings, the Supreme Court has taken a decision that does justice to the public who bears the burden”.

“I congratulate the Supreme Court on this decision, as it’s an important step on the road to historic change,” he added.

Shas leader Rabbi Aryeh Deri said of the Supreme Court’s decision, “There is no power in the world that will prevent the people of Israel from studying the Torah, and whoever has tried to do so in the past has failed miserably”.

Deri added in a statement, “No arbitrary ruling will lead to the abolition of Torah student associations in the Land of Israel”.

Minister of Construction and Housing Rabbi Yitzhak Goldknopf of the United Torah Judaism party said in a post on X, “It’s a very expected, unfortunate and disappointing decision”.

“The State of Israel was created to be home to the Jewish people, whose Torah is the basis of their existence… The Holy Torah will triumph,” he added.

Since 2017, successive governments have failed to reach a consensual law on Haredi recruitment, after the Supreme Court struck down a 2015 law that exempted them from military service, arguing that the exemption violated the principle of equality.

Since then, the Knesset has been extending their exemption from military service, and by the end of March, an order by Netanyahu’s government postponing the implementation of Haredi conscription expired.

In February, Israel’s Supreme Court issued an order requiring the government to explain why Haredi were not recruited.

At the end of March, the court issued a temporary order to stop financial support for students of Torah institutions required to conscript.

While religious parties oppose the Haredi recruitment of the law, secular and nationalist parties support it, causing Netanyahu a problem that threatens his ruling coalition.

Religious Jews, who make up about 13 percent of Israel’s population of nearly 9.7 million, don’t serve in the military, and say they devote their lives to the study of the Torah.

The law requires every Israeli man and woman over 18 to serve in the military, and the exclusion of Haredim from service has been controversial for decades.

But their abandonment of military service in conjunction with the ongoing war on Gaza and the losses of the Israeli army has intensified the controversy, with secular parties demanding that religious people participate in bearing the burden of war.