Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews protest Israeli military service

Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men, dressed in black, rallied in Jerusalem on Thursday to protest against military conscription, an issue that has caused major strain in Israel's right-wing ruling coalition.

The vast crowd were protesting against the absence of a law guaranteeing their right to avoid Israel's mandatory military service -- a pledge long promised by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Crowds of men, many wearing black hats, set fire to pieces of tarpaulin as hundreds of police officers cordoned off several roads across the city, AFP correspondents reported.

Carrying placards denouncing conscription, demonstrators marched along main roads leading into Jerusalem.

The mass demonstration follows a recent crackdown on ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers, with thousands of call-up notices sent in recent months and several deserters imprisoned.

Under a ruling established at the time of Israel's creation in 1948, when the ultra-Orthodox were a very small community, men who devote themselves full-time to the study of sacred Jewish texts are given a de facto pass.

This exemption has come under mounting pressure since war erupted in Gaza in October 2023, as the military struggles to fill its ranks.

Whether the exemption should be scrapped has been a long-running point of contention in Israeli society, with Netanyahu pledging that his government would pass a law enshrining the waiver.

But he has so far failed to deliver.

Responding to the call of two ultra-Orthodox parties -- one of which forms a key part of the ruling coalition -- men travelled from all over Israel on Thursday to demand the continuation of their exemptions.

The police closed roads to Jerusalem and announced the mobilization of 2,000 officers in the city.

In June 2024, the supreme court ruled that the state must draft ultra-Orthodox men, declaring their exemption had expired.

- Vital support for coalition -

A parliamentary committee is now discussing a bill expected to end the exemptions and encourage young ultra-Orthodox men who are not studying full-time to enlist.

The issue has placed Netanyahu's coalition -- one of the most right-wing in the country's history -- under severe strain.

In July, ministers from the ultra-Orthodox Shas party resigned from the cabinet over the issue, though the party has not formally left the coalition.

The other ultra-Orthodox party, United Torah Judaism, has already quit both the government and the coalition.

The Sephardic Shas, which holds 11 seats in the 120-member Knesset, has warned that it will withdraw support unless military service exemptions are anchored in law —-- move that could topple Netanyahu's fragile coalition, now down to 60 seats.

Some ultra-Orthodox rabbis fear that conscription will make young people less religious, but others accept that those who do not study holy texts full-time can enlist.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews make up 14 percent of Israel's Jewish population, or about 1.3 million people, and roughly 66,000 men of military age currently benefit from the exemption.

According to an army report presented to parliament in September, there has been a sharp increase in the number of ultra-Orthodox Jews enlisting despite opposition from their leaders, but the numbers still remain low, at a few hundred over the past two years.