Israel to issue 54,000 military call-up notices to ultra-Orthodox students

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo — An Israeli soldier is seen in Gaza City, March 30, 2024. (Israeli Defense Forces photo via Wikimedia Commons)

Israel's military said it would issue 54,000 call-up notices to ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students following a Supreme Court ruling mandating their conscription and amid growing pressure from reservists stretched by extended deployments.

The Supreme Court ruling last year overturned a decades-old exemption for ultra-Orthodox students, a policy established when the community comprised a far smaller segment of the population than the 13% it represents today. 

Military service is compulsory for most Israeli Jews from the age of 18, lasting 24-32 months, with additional reserve duty in subsequent years. Members of Israel's 21% Arab population are mostly exempt, though some do serve.

A statement by the military spokesperson confirmed the orders on Sunday just as local media reported legislative efforts by two ultra-Orthodox parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition to craft a compromise. 

The exemption issue has grown more contentious as Israel's armed forces in recent years have faced strains from simultaneous engagements with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen, and Iran.

Ultra-Orthodox leaders in Netanyahu's brittle coalition have voiced concerns that integrating seminary students into military units alongside secular Israelis, including women, could jeopardize their religious identity.

The military statement promised to ensure conditions that respect the ultra-Orthodox way of life and to develop additional programmes to support their integration into the military. It said the notices would go out this month.

 (Reporting by Howard GollerEditing by Gareth Jones // REUTERS)