The Israeli army said Monday it had approved new conscription orders for 7,000 members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, a highly sensitive issue in the country as army numbers come under pressure after more than a year of war in Gaza.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant “approved the army’s recommendation to issue 7,000 new orders in the process of evaluating ultra-Orthodox eligible for conscription”, which are in addition to the 3,000 orders issued in July, the army said in a statement.
These calls for compulsory 32-month military service for men, which will be sent “in the coming days”, aim to “achieve recruitment objectives”, she added.
The conscription of ultra-Orthodox Jews is at the heart of public debate while ultra-Orthodox parties are key members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition.
They make up about 14% of Israel’s Jewish population, or nearly 1.3 million people, and about 66,000 military-age men are exempt because they dedicate themselves to the study of the sacred texts of the Judaism under a rule established at the creation of Israel in 1948.
The “haredim” (“God-fearing” in Hebrew), who have a strict interpretation of Jewish religious law and often live withdrawn into their communities, consider that the study of the Torah protects the country as much as the army.
But in June, the Supreme Court ordered the conscription of students in Talmudic schools, ruling that the government could not exempt them “in the absence of an adequate legal framework”.
In 2018, the question of their conscription had created such a crisis that it had precipitated the country towards five legislative elections in four years, without the subject being closed.
With AFP
Canada
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