Israel: Ultra-Orthodox Jews clash with police in Jerusalem over conscription

Ultra-Orthodox Jews clashed with Israeli police in Jerusalem on Sunday evening as thousands took to the streets in opposition to plans to conscript members of the community into the army.

Demonstrators rallied in an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood of Jerusalem in protest against the ruling by the high court saying they should be drafted.

The crowd then later moved into the centre of the city and reportedly pelted the car of an ultra-Orthodox cabinet minister.

Demonstrators set fires and built barricades, while mounted police drove into the crowd.

Police vehicles fired skunk water, a foul-smelling crowd control liquid, at the demonstrators as well.

Historically the ultra-Orthodox have been exempt from military service in Israel and allowed to focus on religious study.

However, there has been increasing anger from other Israelis who view the group as failing to do their patriotic duty, particularly during the war on Gaza which has seen more than 600 Israeli soldiers killed and thousands wounded. 

The Israeli High Court last week week ordered the government to begin drafting ultra-Orthodox men.

The decree also states that ultra-Orthodox men studying in religious seminaries, known as yeshivas, can no longer receive government funding if they refuse to serve without being formally exempt. 

“At the height of a difficult war, the burden of inequality is more than ever acute,” the court’s ruling, unanimously approved by all nine justices, said.

Two ultra-Orthodox parties in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, United Torah Judaism and Shas, denounced the ruling.

“There is no power in the world that can cut off the people of Israel from studying the Torah and anyone who has tried this in the past has failed miserably,” said Aryeh Deri, head of the Shas party and a close ally of Netanyahu.

“No high-handed ruling will abolish the community of scholars in the land of Israel, which is the branch on which we all sit.”

Echoing this criticism, United Torah Judaism said there was no legal basis for the ruling.

However, secular and non-ultra-Orthodox groups in Israel hailed the ruling.

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, which led the petition at the court, urged Defence Minister Yoav Gallant to immediately draft ultra-Orthodox men.

“The high court’s decision is a historic triumph for the rule of law and the principle of equal military service burden,” it said in a statement.

“The ruling affirms our position that the ongoing discrimination in army conscription cannot continue and that the time has come for equality.”