Over the weekend, clashes broke out in Jerusalem between Israeli police and ultra-Orthodox Jews who protested against the conscription of yeshiva students (Jewish higher religious education).
This was reported by the BBC.
The protesters attacked the cars of Housing and Construction Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf and former Health Minister Yaakov Litzman.
On June 25, the Israeli Supreme Court unanimously ruled to conscript ultra-Orthodox men for military service. This decision could lead to the collapse of the ruling coalition.
The young men, who are students at Jewish seminaries, say that their religious way of life is under threat. They believe that their prayers and spiritual studies are what protect Israel and the Jewish people.
"For 2,000 years we’ve been persecuted, and we’ve survived because we’re learning Torah and now the Supreme Court wants to remove this from us, and it will cause our destruction," said one of the students.
For decades, there has been controversy over the role of the ultra-Orthodox in Israeli society. Now the community has one million members, which is 12.9% of the population. The issue of conscription of ultra-Orthodox has now come to a head at the most sensitive time, on the eve of a possible second war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
According to a recent survey conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute, 70% of Israeli Jews wanted to end the blanket exemptions from military service for the ultra-Orthodox.
More than 60,000 ultra-Orthodox men are registered as yeshiva students and have been receiving an exemption from military service. But since last week's Supreme Court ruling, the army has been ordered to draft only 3,000 people from the community, in addition to the approximately 1,500 already serving. It has also been ordered to develop plans to recruit more people in the coming years.
As Apostrophe previously reported, Israel plans to launch a military operation against Lebanon.