Israel's Supreme Court orders government to end funding to religious schools that refuse military service

CNN
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Israel's Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the government to cut funding to religious schools whose students do not comply with state-mandated military service, the most serious threat yet to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling coalition. It has become one.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews have long held a privileged position in Israel, and their schools receive generous government subsidies. Haredim youth, known in Hebrew as haredim, are effectively exempt from military service, a problem that has plagued Israeli society since the country's founding.

The debate has intensified since Israel launched its invasion of Gaza in response to the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack. The attack has left the country in a state of war for nearly six months, and more attacks are likely in the future.

Prime Minister Netanyahu is relying on two ultra-Orthodox parties, Shas and the United Torah of Judaism, to maintain his coalition government. His wartime cabinet partners, Defense Minister Yoav Galant and National Unity Party's Benny Gantz, have harshly criticized Netanyahu's approach to the issue of ultra-Orthodox conscription.

“The judges of the High Court want to see off the divide in the survival of the Jewish people,” Shas party leader Aryeh Deri said in a statement on X. It exists on several fronts, and the judges of the High Court did everything they could to provoke a fratricidal war tonight. ”

In Israel's early days, its first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, reached an agreement with Haredi rabbis to exempt 400 men from military service who studied in religious schools known as yeshivas.

This exemption, made in 1948, had little practical impact as there were few Haredim in Israel and many opposed the state on religious grounds. But the haredi community has since expanded and now makes up 24% of Israelis of draft age, making the issue of exemption even more vexing.

This exemption was never enshrined in a law that the Supreme Court considered fair. In 1998, the long-standing exemption was abolished because it violated the principle of equal protection. In the years since, it has been supported only by patchwork government orders.

The most recent mandate, signed in 2018, is set to expire on March 31, despite Prime Minister Netanyahu's attempt this week to delay a Supreme Court deadline to pass legislation formalizing the exemption. It is planned to become.

But his efforts were unsuccessful. After decades of rulings on the issue, the Supreme Court ruled that it was illegal for the government to fund yeshivas and exempt students from military service. In a ruling late Thursday, the Supreme Court said that starting April 1, the government will no longer be able to transfer funds to yeshivas whose students have not received due deferment.

Yitzhak Goldknopf, head of the United Party of Torah Judaism, called the ruling “a sign of humiliation and contempt.”

“The state of Israel was established as the homeland of the Jewish people, whose Torah is the true Torah, but there is no power in the world that can do that,” he said. “Without the law, we have no right to exist.”

Ultra-Orthodox Jews view religious studies as fundamental to preserving Judaism. For many people living in Israel, that means that academics are as important to Israel's defense as the military.

Ahead of Thursday's Supreme Court ruling, Yohanan Plesner, director of the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), told CNN that the immunity issue “has the greatest potential to bring down the coalition.”

Gantz, of the National Unity Party, said the court “made a clear verdict today. It's time for the government to do what it deserves. It's time to take action.”

Gantz has emerged as Netanyahu's most formidable political opponent in recent months, making an unauthorized visit to Washington, D.C., earlier this month to meet with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. was furious.

Biden administration officials told Gantz the situation in the Gaza Strip was “unacceptable and unsustainable” and called for further steps to allow aid to flow into the enclave, which is nearing starvation. requested.

This story has been updated for further developments.