Page 5 - aruba-today-20240626

A5
WORLD NEWS Wednesday 26 June 2024
Israel’s high court orders the army to draft ultra-Orthodox men,

rattling Netanyahu’s government

By TIA GOLDENBERG and most of whom do not.
Associated Press As descendants of Palestin-
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s ians who remained in Israel
Supreme Court on Tuesday after the 1948 war that led
ruled unanimously that the to its creation, their ties to
military must begin draft- the military are fraught and
ing ultra-Orthodox men for some in Israel see them as
compulsory service, a land- a fifth column because of
mark decision that could their solidarity with Palestin-
lead to the collapse of ians in Gaza and the West
Prime Minister Benjamin Ne- Bank.
tanyahu’s governing coali- Tuesday’s ruling now sets
tion as Israel continues to the stage for growing fric-
wage war in Gaza. tion within the coalition over
The historic ruling effectively the draft issue. Ultra-Ortho-
puts an end to a decades- dox lawmakers are likely to
old system that granted face intense pressure from
ultra-Orthodox men broad religious leaders and their
exemptions from military constituents and may have
service while maintaining to decide whether remain-
mandatory enlistment for ing in the government is
the country’s secular Jewish worthwhile for them. Previ-
majority. The arrangement, ous court rulings on the issue
deemed discriminatory by Israeli police officers remove an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man from the street during a protest and threats of enlistment
critics, has created a deep against army recruitment in Jerusalem on June 2, 2024. Associated Press have sparked protests and
chasm in Israel’s Jewish ma- violence between the ultra-
jority over who should shoul- government to collapse It did not say how many seminary budgets earlier Orthodox and police.
der the burden of protect- and likely leading to new ultra-Orthodox should be this year. Friedman said the ultra-
ing the country. elections at a time when its drafted, but the military has In a post on the social plat- Orthodox “understand that
The court struck down a law popularity has dropped. said it is capable of enlisting form X, Cabinet minister Yit- they don’t have a better
that codified exemptions in In the current environment, 3,000 this year. zhak Goldknopf, who heads political alternative, but at
2017, but repeated court Netanyahu could have a The security establishment one of the ultra-Orthodox the same time their public
extensions and govern- hard time delaying the mat- must “act immediately to parties in the coalition, is saying ‘why did we vote
ment delaying tactics over ter any further or passing implement the ruling” and called the ruling “very un- for you?’”
a replacement dragged laws to restore the exemp- enlist at least that many fortunate and disappoint- The exemptions have faced
out a resolution for years. tions. During arguments, ultra-Orthodox soldiers in ing.” He did not say wheth- years of legal challenges
The court ruled that in the government lawyers told the coming year, the At- er his party would bolt the and a string of court deci-
absence of a law, Israel’s the court that forcing ul- torney General’s Office de- government. sions has found the system
compulsory military service tra-Orthodox men to enlist manded in a letter to legal Israel’s ultra-Orthodox unjust. But Israeli leaders,
applies to the ultra-Ortho- would “tear Israeli society advisors for the defense make up roughly 13% of under pressure from ultra-
dox like any other citizen. apart.” establishment, the Finance the 9.9 million population. Orthodox parties, have re-
Under longstanding ar- The ultra-Orthodox see their Ministry and the Ministry of The community has a high peatedly stalled.
rangements, ultra-Orthodox full-time religious study as Education. birthrate, making it the fast- The Movement for Qual-
men have been exempt their part in protecting the Some 66,000 ultra-Orthodox est-growing segment of the ity Government in Israel,
from the draft, which is state. men are now eligible for en- population, at about 4% an- which has helped lead
compulsory for most Jew- Many fear that greater con- listment, according to Shuki nually. Each year, roughly the challenge against the
ish men and women, who tact with secular society Friedman, an expert on re- 13,000 ultra-Orthodox males exemptions, called on the
serve three and two years through the military will dis- ligion and state affairs and reach the conscription age government to immediate-
respectively as well as re- tance adherents from strict the vice-president of the of 18 but less than 10% en- ly draft all eligible seminary
serve duty until around age observance of the faith. Jewish People Policy Insti- list, according to the Israeli students.
40. A statement from Netan- tute, a Jerusalem think tank. parliament’s State Control “This is their legal and moral
These exemptions have yahu’s Likud party criticized The ruling of Israel’s high- Committee. duty, especially in light of
long been a source of an- the ruling, saying a bill in est court must be followed, Ultra-Orthodox men attend the complex security situa-
ger among the secular parliament backed by the and the military is expected special seminaries that fo- tion and the urgent need
public, a divide that has Israeli leader would address to begin doing so once it cus on religious studies, with for personnel” in the army,
widened during the eight- the draft issue. Critics say it forms a plan for how to draft little attention on secular said Tomer Naor, head of
month-old war, as the mili- falls short of Israel’s wartime thousands of members of a topics such as math, Eng- the group’s legal depart-
tary has called up tens of needs. population that’s deeply lish or science. Critics have ment.
thousands of soldiers and “The real solution to the opposed to service, and said they are ill-prepared to Netanyahu’s coalition is
says it needs all the man- draft problem is not a Su- which follows a cloistered serve in the military or enter buoyed by two ultra-Ortho-
power it can get. Over 600 preme Court ruling,” the and modest lifestyle the the secular work force. dox parties who oppose in-
soldiers have been killed statement said. military may not be imme- Religious women generally creasing enlistment for their
since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. In its ruling, the court found diately prepared to accom- receive exemptions that constituents. The long-serv-
Politically powerful ultra- that the state was carry- modate. The army had no are not as controversial, in ing Israeli leader has tried to
Orthodox parties, key part- ing out “invalid selective immediate comment. part because women are adhere to the court’s rulings
ners in Netanyahu’s gov- enforcement, which repre- The court also ruled that not expected to serve in while also scrambling to pre-
erning coalition, oppose sents a serious violation of state subsidies for seminar- combat units. serve his coalition. But with
any change to the current the rule of law, and the prin- ies where exempted ultra- The court ruling does not a slim majority of 64 seats
system. If the exemptions ciple according to which all Orthodox men study should address the status of Israel’s in the 120-member parlia-
are ended, they could bolt individuals are equal before remain suspended. The Palestinian citizens, who ment, he’s often beholden
the coalition, causing the the law.” court temporarily froze the are not expected to serve to the smaller parties.q