Israeli women mobilize against ultra-Orthodox military exemptions

Exhausted by more than 14 months of war, the wives and mothers of Israeli soldiers are uniting in protest against exemptions from conscription for ultra-Orthodox men.

For several Saturday evenings, the bridge over a key highway that runs between Bnei Brak, an ultra-Orthodox suburb of Tel Aviv, and Givat Shmuel, a bastion of religious Zionists whose sons and husbands proudly serve in the army, has been the scene of a tense standoff.

Ultra-Orthodox residents passed by, some running, as protesters holding Israeli flags and banners shouted through megaphones demanding "conscription for all".

The military has asked for extra manpower in light of the war in Gaza and connected conflicts, while the Supreme Court ruled in June that the state must draft ultra-Orthodox Jewish men into military service.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing coalition government includes members of two ultra-Orthodox parties, and he has feared that ending the exemption could break up his coalition.

The coalition is moving ahead with legislation that would protect the exemption for the vast majority of Haredim (the Hebrew name for ultra-Orthodox Jews, meaning "God-fearing") from military service.

Political and religious ultra-Orthodox leaders, whose decisions are often binding on their followers, continue to strongly oppose service in the military. They say that prayer and religious study protects the country as much as combat.

- 'Help from our brothers' -

Military service is mandatory in Israel, but under agreements forged at Israel's creation, when the Haredim were only a very small community, those who devote themselves to the study of sacred Jewish texts can avoid conscription.

The ultra-Orthodox account for 14 percent of Israel's Jewish population, according to the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), representing about 1.3 million people. About 66,000 of those of conscription age are exempted, according to the army.

Michal Vilian, a 60-year-old resident of Givat Shmuel, has been participating in weekly demonstrations organized since last month by "Partners for Bearing the Burden", a religious women's collective.

All four of her sons and her son-in-law have been called up as reservists, almost without leave since the war began, and been deployed to Gaza, Lebanon and, more recently, Syria.

"We are here to ask for help from our brothers who live just across the bridge, to tell them to lend a hand, a shoulder, and to share the burden", said the doctor, sporting the turban worn by religious Zionist women.

Religious Zionist Jews are allied with the ultra-Orthodox factions in Netanyahu's coalition, and their political leaders have been willing to compromise on the issue of Haredim exemptions.

Even for them, though, the burden of the war has become too heavy.

Since October 7, 2023, 818 soldiers have been killed, including during the Hamas attack on Israel as well as in the Gaza ground operation, the Israeli offensive in southern Lebanon and operations in the occupied West Bank.

With a disproportionately high number of combat deaths due to their above average participation in the military, they share the anger of the majority of Israelis on this issue, said Amotz Asa-El, a researcher at the Shalom Hartman Institute.

That anger was now "overflowing," he said.

- 'Not the Torah' -

The exemption is "perceived by the vast majority of the rest of the population as being at their expense in the most physical, existential sense of the term," he added.

At its peak, just days after Hamas's attack, up to 300,000 reservists were mobilized in the ranks of the army. This number has now dropped to 100,000, or around one percent of the total Israeli population, according to figures from the Reservists' Wives Forum.

One of the founders of the Forum, Rotem Avidar Tzalik, a 34-year-old lawyer, said she has been living in a "parallel reality" for more than a year, with her husband, a member of a special unit, called up for more than 200 days.

A mother of three young children, she said the weight of mobilization had become unbearable for families because of the economic and psychological difficulties it caused.

In the Israeli parliament, where she advocates for the rights of reservists' families, her approach to the issue of ultra-Orthodox conscription is pragmatic, emphasizing that it is only one aspect of broader changes needed.

She points out, however, that any increase in their conscription, "even by just a thousand," beyond the few thousand who already serve, would have a "huge impact" for reservists by allowing them to reduce the burden.

Shvut Raanan, a 31-year-old lawyer, also an active member of the Forum, said the Haredim's arguments did not stand up to scrutiny.

"It has never worked that way in religious history... it is clear that this is not the Torah," said the mother of four young children, citing various Jewish religious figures who called for Jewish people to fight.

© Agence France-Presse