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An impending political storm over drafting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the military is threatening to undermine Israel's government and splitting the state.

Public opinion on the matter has undergone a sea change in Israel after two years of hostilities, and this is now perhaps the most explosive political issue facing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Legal Struggle

Legislators are currently considering a proposal to terminate the special status given to Haredi students engaged in Torah study, established when the the nation was founded in 1948.

That exemption was struck down by Israel's High Court of Justice in the early 2000s. Temporary arrangements to extend it were officially terminated by the bench last year, pressuring the government to start enlisting the Haredi sector.

Roughly 24,000 call-up papers were sent out last year, but only around 1,200 Haredi conscripts showed up, according to defense officials presented to lawmakers.

Strains Erupt Into Violence

Tensions are erupting onto the city centers, with parliamentarians now deliberating a new conscription law to force yeshiva students into national service together with other Jewish citizens.

Two Haredi politicians were harassed this month by some extreme ultra-Orthodox protesters, who are enraged with the legislative debate of the proposed law.

In a recent incident, a elite police squad had to extract enforcement personnel who were targeted by a large crowd of Haredi men as they attempted to detain a suspected draft-evader.

These arrests have led to the development of a new alert system called "Black Alert" to rapidly disseminate information through Haredi neighborhoods and summon demonstrators to stop detentions from happening.

"This is a Jewish state," said an activist. "You can't fight against the Jewish faith in a nation founded on Jewish identity. That is untenable."

An Environment Separate

However the shifts blowing through Israel have failed to penetrate the walls of the religious seminary in a Haredi stronghold, an Haredi enclave on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

In the learning space, young students learn in partnerships to analyze the Torah, their vividly colored notepads contrasting with the rows of formal attire and head coverings.

"Visit in the early hours, and you will see many of the students are pursuing religious study," the leader of the yeshiva, Rabbi Tzemach Mazuz, said. "Through religious study, we safeguard the military personnel in the field. This constitutes our service."

Ultra-Orthodox believe that continuous prayer and Torah learning defend Israel's soldiers, and are as crucial to its military success as its conventional forces. That belief was endorsed by the nation's leaders in the earlier decades, Rabbi Mazuz said, but he conceded that the nation is evolving.

Rising Popular Demand

The ultra-Orthodox population has significantly increased its share of the country's people over the past seven decades, and now accounts for around one in seven. An exemption that started as an deferment for several hundred yeshiva attendees turned into, by the beginning of the Gaza war, a cohort of some 60,000 men exempt from the national service.

Surveys suggest approval of drafting the Haredim is increasing. A survey in July revealed that an overwhelming percentage of non-Haredi Jews - including almost three-quarters in Netanyahu's own right-wing Likud party - supported penalties for those who refused a draft order, with a clear majority in favor of cutting state subsidies, passports, or the electoral participation.

"I feel there are individuals who reside in this country without serving," one serviceman in Tel Aviv explained.

"In my view, however religious you are, [it] should be an justification not to perform service your country," stated a Tel Aviv resident. "If you're born here, I find it somewhat unreasonable that you want to avoid service just to study Torah all day."

Perspectives from Within Bnei Brak

Support for extending the draft is also coming from observant Jews outside the Haredi community, like one local resident, who is a neighbor of the academy and highlights non-Haredi religious Jews who do perform national service while also studying Torah.

"It makes me angry that the Haredim don't serve in the army," she said. "It's unfair. I too follow the Jewish law, but there's a saying in Hebrew - 'The Book and the Sword' – it signifies the Torah and the defense together. That's the way forward, until the days of peace."

She manages a small memorial in Bnei Brak to local soldiers, both from all backgrounds, who were fallen in war. Long columns of faces {