Israel’s Supreme Court has ordered the government to stop funding religious schools where students skip military services.
The ruling comes as a blow to the Benjamin Netanyahu government, which includes two ultraorthodox parties – Shas and United Torah Judaism. The future of the exemption may lead to a serious split within the government.
The government had last year issued a temporary resolution ordering the army not to conscript yeshiva or religious students before March 31. The court has not responded on the government’s request, but instead ordered that subsidies be stopped to religious schools for students from April 1.
Both the coalition partners have reacted furiously to the court’s move.
“The judges of the high court of justice want to saw off the branch of existence of the Jewish people. The people of Israel are engaged in a war of existence on several fronts and the judges of the High Court did everything tonight to create a civil war as well,” Aryeh Deri, head of the ultraorthodox Shas party wrote on X.
However, Benny Gantz, a former general who joined Netanyahu’s coalition in a unity government welcomed court’s decision and urged the government to pass a law where these religious students would need to join the government.
The exemption has been in place since 1948 when 400 religious leaders were exempted from military service when they joined a yeshiva, or religious school.
There has been growing frustration among Israelis on the issue of state subsidies for yeshiva students and deferral of their military services.
In 2017, Israel’s apex court had ruled the exemption as unconstitutional, but successive governments since have tried and failed to pass new legislation on the issue.
Orthodox Jews view religious study as fundamental to the preservation of Judaism. For a lot of them, studying the religion is as important as military training.
