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Israel’s Supreme Court on Thursday ordered to temporarily block government funding for ultra-Orthodox Jewish students who do not serve in the military. Ultra-Orthodox Jews have always been exempt from military service, not on the basis of a state law but thanks to a series of religious exemptions issued by the government as administrative provisions which are renewed periodically.
This exemption has been causing a lot of discussion in recent months, given that after the Hamas attack on Israel and the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip hundreds of thousands of secular Israelis were called up to serve in the army as reservists, unlike the Jews ultra-orthodox. The Israeli Supreme Court ruled in February that the government could not grant exemption to the ultra-Orthodox through administrative measures, and gave it until April 1 to present a law to formalize the exemption to the ultra-Orthodox.
However, the parties that are part of the Israeli government – the most right-wing in the country’s history – have not managed to find an agreement: this is due to the conflicts within the majority, also made up of ultra-Orthodox parties, which are obviously in favor of presenting a law making the exemption official.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had asked the Supreme Court for a 30-day extension, to try to find an agreement in the government and avoid reaching the April 1st deadline: from that day, in theory, ultra-Orthodox men and women they should become enlistablealthough it is possible that the government will eventually find a way to apply new deferrals and exemptions.
The Supreme Court did not respond to the request for an extension but in the meantime reacted to the government’s uncertainty by ordering the blocking of government funds for religious schools attended by ultra-Orthodox Jews who were exempted from compulsory military service or did not join the army voluntarily.
The schools involved are called yeshivot and are independent of the Israeli Ministry of Education. Netanyahu’s government has granted them many privileges, precisely to accommodate the ultra-Orthodox parties. Many teach only religious subjects, that is, those that concern the learning of sacred texts and topics, and not others such as mathematics, science and English.
What is not said about the Supreme Court’s decision is that it could actually allow the Israeli government to stall for time and not immediately make a decision on the compulsory conscription of ultra-Orthodox Jews. The freeze on funds will be temporary, and will remain in place until the Israeli government passes a military service exemption law. It is likely that the government will now ask for new extensions, and thus avoid the enlistment of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews which would create a major political problem within the majority.