Israel’s Supreme Court orders conscription for ultra-Orthodox men
Al Jazeera
The ruling risks the further destabilisation of Israel’s government, with key religiously conservative parties opposed.
Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that the military must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox men for military service.
The ruling announced on Tuesday seeks to overturn a longstanding practice under which Jewish seminary students are exempt from conscription. The decision threatens to help destabilise the government, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition reliant on religiously conservative parties that oppose the move.
The court said that in the absence of a law that distinguishes between Jewish seminary students and other draftees, Israel’s compulsory military service system applies to ultra-Orthodox men like any other citizen.
Under longstanding arrangements, ultra-Orthodox men have been exempt from the draft. However, the court found that the state was carrying out “invalid selective enforcement”.
That “represents a serious violation of the rule of law, and the principle according to which all individuals are equal before the law,” the ruling read.
