Blow for Benjamin Netanyahu as ultra-Orthodox party quits coalition

United Torah Judaism leaves government over lack of progress on exempting its young men from military service

Israeli police scuffle with ultra-Orthodox Jewish men during a protest against military service in June. Reuters

An ultra-Orthodox party has quit Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition in a long-running dispute over mandatory military service, leaving his government with a razor-thin majority amid public protests over the Gaza war.

The departure of United Torah Judaism leaves Mr Netanyahu with 61 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. If ultra-Orthodox party Shas also quits over the issue, as Israeli media reports suggest they will this week, the government will be left with only 50 seats.

The two parties have not said whether they will join the opposition to try to dissolve parliament, which would trigger elections. Their departures will only come into effect after 48 hours, giving Mr Netanyahu a window to salvage the situation.

Israeli police disperse ultra-Orthodox Jewish protesters during a demonstration against conscription in Jerusalem, in October. AFP

United Torah Judaism’s move is the latest in wrangles over whether Israel’s growing ultra-Orthodox population should serve in the military, as all other Jewish Israelis are obliged to do.

The issue has been a political lightning rod for years, but is drawing particular anger during the Gaza war as Israel’s military says it is facing a shortage of personnel. Many Israelis are saying the ultra-Orthodox community is shirking its responsibility.

It is also a divisive issue within Mr Netanyahu’s far-right coalition, which contains ultra-nationalist Zionist parties whose supporters are disproportionately represented in military units fighting on the frontlines.

A spokesman for one of the factions that makes up UTJ said the party was making the decision after the government repeatedly failed “to fulfil their obligations to regulate the legal status of the dear yeshiva students”, referring to ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious schools that focus on the study of Torah and rabbinic traditions.

Currently, men enrolled in these schools are exempt from military service. But a court ruled in June last year that this exemption was no longer legal. In response, the community wants the government to legislate on a permanent exemption, but that process has been stalled. Mr Netanyahu has reportedly directly intervened in the drafting of the long-debated bill, which faces stiff resistance from influential politician Yuli Edelstein, of Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party.

A wave of departures from the coalition was prevented last month after Mr Edelstein agreed to limit some sanctions against draft dodgers listed in an earlier version of the bill.

Palestinians queue for food in central Gaza. Israel's military says it faces a personnel shortage after 21 months of war in the enclave. AFP

The ultra-Orthodox community also receives significant subsidies to continue its secluded way of life, which many Israelis criticise as an unfair financial burden that encourages its members not to integrate.

While some ultra-Orthodox Jews do serve in specialised branches of the armed forces, they represent a tiny proportion of the fast-growing community, whose leaders overwhelmingly encourage men to pursue full-time religious study.

Community leaders fear that military life draws men away from the isolated group – significant swathes of which are non-Zionist – and its strict, insular interpretation of Judaism.

The Israeli opposition has made military exemption a central issue in its strategy to attack the government.

“We will not forget: while Netanyahu fought yesterday to promote draft evasion, he knew about the three fatalities and the soldier who took his own life,” wrote opposition leader Yair Lapid in a post on X on Tuesday, following news of Israeli soldiers dying in Gaza.

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, a favourite in polls for future elections, said on Monday that as soldiers were dying, “in the corridors of the Knesset, coalition members are moving heaven and Earth to create a draft-dodging law”.

“This gap is unbearable. We are at war. Our sons are there. In Gaza, in the north, wherever they are needed,” he added. “This is a disgraceful government, unworthy of our good people.”