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A gathering political storm over drafting Haredi men into the Israeli army is posing a risk to the administration and dividing the state.

The public mood on the matter has undergone a sea change in Israel after two years of conflict, and this is now possibly the most divisive political issue facing the Prime Minister.

The Legal Conflict

Legislators are now debating a piece of legislation to end the exemption awarded to ultra-Orthodox men engaged in Torah study, created when the modern Israel was declared in 1948.

The deferment was struck down by the nation's top court almost 20 years ago. Temporary arrangements to maintain it were officially terminated by the bench last year, forcing the cabinet to start enlisting the Haredi sector.

Roughly 24,000 draft notices were sent out last year, but merely about 1,200 ultra-Orthodox - or Haredi - draftees showed up, according to military testimony shared with lawmakers.

Strains Erupt Onto the Streets

Strains are boiling over onto the city centers, with parliamentarians now debating a new legislative proposal to compel ultra-Orthodox men into army duty in the same way as other Jewish citizens.

Two Haredi politicians were confronted this month by radical elements, who are furious with the Knesset's deliberations of the bill.

Recently, a elite police squad had to extract enforcement personnel who were attacked by a large crowd of Haredi men as they sought to apprehend a suspected draft-evader.

These arrests have sparked the creation of a new alert system dubbed "Emergency Alert" to send out instant alerts through the religious sector and mobilize demonstrators to block enforcement from taking place.

"This is a Jewish state," stated one protester. "One cannot oppose Judaism in a Jewish country. It is a contradiction."

A World Separate

But the changes blowing through Israel have not reached the confines of the Torah academy in a Haredi stronghold, an ultra-Orthodox city on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

Inside the classroom, scholars study together to discuss Jewish law, their distinctive notepads standing out against the seats of light-colored shirts and small black kippahs.

"Visit in the early hours, and you will see many of the students are studying Torah," the leader of the seminary, Rabbi Tzemach Mazuz, explained. "Through religious study, we safeguard the military personnel wherever they are. This constitutes our service."

Haredi Jews maintain that constant study and religious study protect Israel's soldiers, and are as essential to its defense as its advanced weaponry. This tenet was accepted by the nation's leaders in the earlier decades, he said, but he admitted that the nation is evolving.

Growing Public Pressure

The ultra-Orthodox population has significantly increased its percentage of the country's people over the past seven decades, and now represents 14%. An exemption that started as an exemption for a small number of yeshiva attendees turned into, by the beginning of the Gaza war, a group of some 60,000 men left out of the conscription.

Polling data suggest backing for drafting the Haredim is increasing. A survey in July found that 85% of the broader Jewish public - even a significant majority in his own coalition allies - backed consequences for those who refused a draft order, with a firm majority in favor of withdrawing benefits, travel documents, or the right to vote.

"I feel there are citizens who reside in this country without contributing," one military member in Tel Aviv explained.

"It is my belief, however religious you are, [it] should be an justification not to perform service your state," stated a young woman. "As a citizen by birth, I find it somewhat unreasonable that you want to avoid service just to learn in a yeshiva all day."

Voices from Inside a Religious City

Backing for extending the draft is also coming from religious Jews outside the ultra-Orthodox sector, like a Bnei Brak inhabitant, who resides close to the yeshiva and points to religious Zionists who do serve in the military while also engaging in religious study.

"I'm very angry that ultra-Orthodox people don't enlist," she said. "It's unfair. I also believe in the Torah, but there's a teaching in Jewish tradition - 'Safra and Saifa' – it means the scripture and the defense together. That's the way forward, until the messianic era."

The resident manages a modest remembrance site in Bnei Brak to local soldiers, both observant and non-observant, who were lost in conflict. Long columns of photographs {