JERUSALEM– Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to present a highly contested bill that seeks to conscript ultra-Orthodox Jews into the military to a ministerial committee on Thursday.
His office said on Wednesday that Netanyahu sought to bridge societal and political divisions and that he was calling on all parties that had supported the proposed law in the previous parliament to back it once more.
The issue is especially sensitive this year amid an open-ended war in Gaza and related fighting on other fronts that have exacted the worst Israeli casualties – mostly among secular teenaged draftees and reservists – in decades.
Netanyahu’s coalition includes two ultra-Orthodox parties that regard the exemptions as key to keeping their constituents in religious seminaries and away from a melting-pot military that might test their conservative values.
The issue has prompted protests by ultra-Orthodox Jews, who make up 13% of Israel’s 10 million population – a figure expected to reach 19% by 2035. Their refusal to serve in wars they generally support is a long festering schism in Israeli society.
Economists argue that the conscription waiver keeps some of the ultra-Orthodox community unnecessarily out of the workforce, spelling a growing welfare burden for largely secular, middle-class taxpayers.
Israel’s 21% Arab minority is also largely exempted from the draft, under which men and women are generally called up at the age of 18, with men serving 32 months and women 24 months.