Ultra-Orthodox Ramp Up Anti-Conscription Protests

Ten ultra-Orthodox Jews—or Haredim—were arrested in Jerusalem amid fresh protests against military conscription. Police used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, who were blocking the main traffic artery into Jerusalem. Previously, they had tried to disrupt the opening of the winter parliamentary session but were forcefully displaced by security forces. Last week, some 120 ultra-Orthodox Jews were arrested after thousands took to the streets to demand ongoing exemptions from serving in the Israel Defense Forces. The protests, organized by the hardline so-called Jerusalem Faction, were sparked by the detainment of two Jewish seminary students who failed to show up to the army’s draft offices. The contentious issue predates Israel’s founding, when David Ben-Gurion, then the head of the predominantly secular Jewish population in British Mandate Palestine, persuaded religious bodies to join what would become Israel’s first government in exchange for a set of guarantees giving special standing to ultra-Orthodoxy in the future state, including the exemption from military service of full-time Torah students. At the time, the ultra-Orthodox community numbered in the tens of thousands compared to the more than one million Haredim that live in Israel today. Earlier this year, Israel’s High Court of Justice struck down a law exempting ultra-Orthodox men engaged in religious study from serving in the IDF, saying it undermined equality. However, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has hinted at drafting new legislation to this effect, a longstanding demand of the haredi parties that sit in his coalition government.