Signaling shift, Israeli Interior Minister calls for Orthodox flexibility on military service

The Shas and United Torah Judaism parties have previously threatened to quit the government over the issue.

By Pesach Benson, TPS

Signaling a shift in the religious Shas Party, Interior Minister Moshe Abel called on Israel’s Orthodox community to show flexibility on military service while addressing the Haifa Law Conference at the University of Haifa on Thursday.

“Our ability to preserve history is through the same group that passes the word from generation to generation, from father to son, and it is of national importance, not just religious. In the same breath, it cannot allow anyone who wears a black kippa to decide not to enlist in the IDF. Especially after October 7, we need to win the war,” said Arbel.

Arbel was speaking one day after Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told lawmakers he would begin drafting yeshiva students next month.

“In the July-August recruitment, we will issue about 3,000 orders with the intention that the maximum will arrive. If 3,000 arrive, that is excellent, and if not, then we will study for the next recruitments. We are not looking to anger, we are looking for success in the process,” Gallant told the Knesset on Wednesday.

The Shas and United Torah Judaism parties have previously threatened to quit the government over the issue.

Said Arbel, “I want to say in a clear way that is not ambiguous: it is mandatory to comply with the provisions of the law and it is mandatory to comply with the ruling of the court.”

The High Court of Justice in June ordered the state to immediately begin conscripting yeshiva students.

In the end, said Arbel, the issue of drafting yeshiva students will be decided in a public debate that will require flexibility from both sides.

Military service is compulsory for all Israeli citizens. However, Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, and the country’s leading rabbis agreed to a status quo that deferred military service for Orthodox men studying in yeshivot, or religious institutions.

At the time, no more than several hundred men were studying in yeshivot.

However, the Orthodox community has grown significantly since Israel’s founding.

In January 2023, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported that Haredim are Israel’s fastest-growing community and projected it would constitute 16% of the population by the end of the decade.

According to the Israel Democracy Institute, the number of yeshiva students exceeded 138,000 in 2021.

That demographic growth has fueled passionate debates about “sharing the burden” of military service, the status of religious study in a Jewish society, and Haredi integration.

The war against Hamas, now in its eighth month, has stretched the army’s manpower needs, sharpening the national debate. The Press Service of Israel found that Haredi attitudes towards military service have softened since Hamas’s October 7 attacks.