Israel lawmakers bid to exempt ultra-Orthodox from conscription

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israeli lawmakers voted on Wednesday to advance a bill that would allow most ultra-Orthodox Jewish men to avoid military conscription, despite fierce opposition protests.

Ultra-orthodox men have largely been exempted from service throughout Israel’s modern history, but the Supreme Court has repeatedly challenged that status in recent years culminating in a 2024 ruling that the government must conscript them.

The exemption has grown controversial as the once ultra-Orthodox community has increased in size relative to the rest of the population and Israel has faced multiple wars, but still has backing from the government.

The bill, tabled by ultra-Orthodox parties, passed a preliminary reading by 56 votes to 43 and will now go to a parliamentary committee before a first reading vote.

According to its preamble, the proposed legislation “seeks to enshrine in a Basic Law the status of Torah study as a fundamental value of the Jewish people’s heritage.”

Basic Laws carry constitutional weight in Israel and require a simple majority of 61 out of 120 lawmakers to pass a third reading.

The bill also proposes that “the State of Israel recognize individuals who commit to devoting themselves to Torah study over an extended period as performing a meaningful service for the benefit of the state and the Jewish people.”

The government, which backed the bill on Wednesday, said it would support its passage on condition that any comparison between Torah students and those performing military or national service be removed from the text.

Since the summer of 2025, ultra-Orthodox parties have distanced themselves from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, accusing him of breaking his pledge to pass legislation guaranteeing that students at yeshivot — Jewish religious seminaries — be exempt from military service.

By denying Netanyahu his outright majority, they have forced him into a series of political concessions in exchange for their votes on individual pieces of legislation, including a budget passed at the eleventh hour in late March.

The backing of Netanyahu’s three-party coalition — his right-wing Likud and two far-right allies — is aimed at securing ultra-Orthodox support for legislation the government wants to push through before a general election due by late October at the latest.

A large majority of Israelis have grown increasingly hostile to the exemption enjoyed by ultra-Orthodox men, with reservists having faced repeated call-ups since the war triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

“What does this law have to do with Torah study? This is a law designed to fund desertion,” Israel’s main opposition leader Yair Lapid, a centrist, said in Parliament.

Several coalition members have already signaled they will not support the bill.

On Wednesday, a group of ultra-Orthodox men protested military conscription notices by blocking a road in Jerusalem, AFP footage showed, prompting police to remove them from the scene.

Protests by members from the community have turned violent in recent weeks, including one earlier this month that saw some storming the house of a senior Supreme Court judge.

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By Agence France-Presse