Who are Israel’s ultra-Orthodox and will conscripting them sow discord?
Al Jazeera
Israel is set to draft a previously exempted community for the first time, a move met with protests and opposition.
This week, Israel’s government announced that starting Sunday, it would begin conscripting ultra-Orthodox Jewish men for the first time in the country’s 76-year history.
The statement came more than a month after Israel’s Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the military was to begin enlisting ultra-Orthodox men into the army, upending a longstanding political arrangement that exempted them from compulsory military service.
The ruling threatens to antagonise large segments of the community, which argues that serving in the army threatens its way of life.
In addition, the forced enlistment of ultra-Orthodox men could destabilise Israel’s far-right coalition government, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Ultra-Orthodox parties in Netanyahu’s coalition oppose the move, and their communities are protesting on the streets.
