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A looming crisis over conscripting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the Israel Defense Forces is threatening to undermine the administration and fracturing the country.

Public opinion on the matter has undergone a sea change in Israel after two years of conflict, and this is now arguably the most volatile political issue facing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Legal Struggle

Politicians are now debating a piece of legislation to end the special status granted to yeshiva scholars dedicated to full-time religious study, instituted when the State of Israel was declared in 1948.

That exemption was struck down by the nation's top court in the early 2000s. Interim measures to extend it were formally ended by the judiciary last year, pressuring the cabinet to start enlisting the Haredi sector.

Some 24,000 call-up papers were delivered last year, but just approximately 1,200 ultra-Orthodox - or Haredi - draftees enlisted, according to army data presented to lawmakers.

Friction Erupt Into Public View

Strains are boiling over onto the city centers, with elected officials now discussing a new conscription law to require yeshiva students into national service together with other secular Israelis.

Two representatives were harassed this month by hardline activists, who are furious with the legislative debate of the draft legislation.

And last week, a elite police squad had to rescue army police who were targeted by a big group of ultra-Orthodox protesters as they tried to arrest a man avoiding service.

These enforcement actions have led to the development of a new communication network dubbed "Emergency Alert" to spread word quickly through the religious sector and mobilize activists to prevent arrests from taking place.

"This is a Jewish state," said an activist. "One cannot oppose religious practice in a Jewish country. It doesn't work."

A Realm Set Aside

But the changes sweeping across Israel have not yet breached the environment of the Torah academy in Bnei Brak, an religious community on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

Within the study hall, young students sit in pairs to debate Judaism's religious laws, their brightly coloured notepads standing out against the rows of white shirts and head coverings.

"Visit in the early hours, and you will see half the guys are engaged in learning," the leader of the yeshiva, Rabbi Tzemach Mazuz, explained. "Via dedicated learning, we safeguard the soldiers wherever they are. This is how we contribute."

The community holds that continuous prayer and religious study guard Israel's soldiers, and are as essential to its security as its tanks and air force. That belief was endorsed by Israel's politicians in the past, Rabbi Mazuz said, but he acknowledged that Israel was changing.

Growing Popular Demand

The Haredi community has more than doubled its share of the country's people over the past seven decades, and now constitutes around one in seven. A policy that originated as an deferment for a few hundred yeshiva attendees evolved into, by the onset of the 2023 war, a cohort of tens of thousands of men not subject to the conscription.

Polling data show support for ultra-Orthodox conscription is growing. Research in July showed that an overwhelming percentage of non-Haredi Jews - encompassing a large segment in his own coalition allies - favored sanctions for those who refused a enlistment summons, with a firm majority in supporting withdrawing benefits, travel documents, or the franchise.

"I feel there are individuals who live in this country without contributing," one serviceman in Tel Aviv commented.

"It is my belief, however religious you are, [it] should be an justification not to fulfill your duty to your country," added Gabby. "If you're born here, I find it somewhat unreasonable that you want to opt out just to study Torah all day."

Views from the Heart of Bnei Brak

Support for broadening conscription is also coming from observant Jews outside the ultra-Orthodox sector, like a Bnei Brak inhabitant, who resides close to the seminary and highlights observant but non-Haredi Jews who do enlist in the army while also maintaining their faith.

"It makes me angry that the Haredim don't enlist," she said. "It's unfair. I am also committed to the Jewish law, but there's a teaching in Hebrew - 'The Book and the Sword' – it means the scripture and the guns together. That's the way forward, until the days of peace."

She manages a modest remembrance site in the neighborhood to fallen servicemen, both from all backgrounds, who were fallen in war. Long columns of photographs {