Israel’s parliament approves laws to enshrine exemption of ultra-Orthodox men from military service

TEL AVIV — Israel’s parliament has approved laws that effectively halt the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox men in the country’s military in a last-ditch effort by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition to woo religious political parties ahead of elections in the fall.

Lawmakers voted in a marathon session on Monday and Tuesday to both freeze the arrests of ultra-Orthodox draft evaders and to enshrine Jewish religious studies as a “foundational value” of the state.

Both laws represent significant concessions by Netanyahu’s Likud party to ultra-Orthodox politicians seeking to formalize their community’s de facto exemption from serving in the military, which is compulsory for most Jewish men and women in Israel.

The military is already grappling with troop shortages and many Israelis have grown tired of the long-standing system that allowed ultra-Orthodox men to avoid service. Each year, roughly 13,000 ultra-Orthodox men reach the conscription age of 18, but less than 10% enlist, according to a parliamentary committee.

The laws come in the wake of nearly three years of wars — from Gaza to Lebanon and Iran — and ahead of the Knesset’s break for the summer recess. It will return just days before the next parliament elections on Oct. 27, a vote that will also be a referendum on Netanyahu’s wartime leadership.

The prime minister, who has served more terms than any other premier in Israel’s history, is courting the support of the ultra-Orthodox, also known as Haredim, in the upcoming polls.

“Netanyahu is trying to ensure that Haredim are going to negotiate only with him after the next elections,” said Shlomit Ravitsky Tur-Paz, head of the religious and state program at the Israel Democracy Institute think tank.

But Netanyahu faces stiff opposition, including from within his own party and even the military chief of staff, Ravitsky Tur-Paz said.

In a letter to Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, military chief Eyal Zamir criticized the bills, describing them as “clearly and unequivocally inconsistent” with the military’s needs, according to local media reports.

“It is inconceivable that the military system under my command, which demands unprecedented sacrifice from its personnel, would be party to granting mass exemptions from prosecution,” he wrote.

The exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox date back to the 1948 founding of Israel, when a small number of students sought to revive the Jewish scholarship system after it was decimated during the Holocaust.

Israel’s Supreme Court later ruled that the exemptions are illegal. Experts say the law formalizing the study of the Torah, Judaism’s foundational text, grants the state a legal basis from which to oppose the court’s opinions.

The law is “an utter desecration of God’s name” that is “spitting in the face” of Israeli soldiers, said opposition leader Yair Lapid.

For Moshe Gafni, an ultra-Orthodox lawmaker who sponsored the bill, its passage is historic.

“For thousands of years, Torah study was the force that preserved the Jewish people throughout their diaspora and all generations,” he said, adding that the law “will be a compass for the values of the state.”

Lidman and Melzer write for the Associated Press. Melzer reported from Nahariya, Israel.