The war in Gaza fuels criticism of the ultra-Orthodox's refusal to serve in the Israeli army

This Monday marks 150 days of war between Israel and Hamas and the end of the most costly and deadly conflict that Israel has faced since independence in 1948 is not in sight. The country has mobilized more than 300,000 reservists, but the army, with some 170,000 permanent members, needs more troops. No less than 7,000 in the short term, half for combat units, according to local media. Almost 600 soldiers have died and nearly 6,000 have been injured, according to the Ministry of Defense, which raises estimates of those who will be injured this year to 20,000. The slab that represents these unpublished data on victims weighs more and more on the authorities of a country that historically allows the ultra-Orthodox population, almost 15% of ten million inhabitants, to avoid the army. They are also, with almost seven children on average per family, the main demographic weapon of the country.

Many have no other occupation than studying the Torah (sacred text of Judaism) and this lack of involvement in national defense is becoming increasingly worse. In the background, the massacre at the hands of the Palestinian Islamists of Hamas of some 1,200 people on October 7, triggering the conflict, and the Israeli response killing more than 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza.

“We recognize and support those who dedicate their lives to the study of the sacred Jewish scriptures, but without physical existence there is no spiritual existence,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant recalled this week. But the delicate balance of the Government of which it is a part, which depends on religious formations that deny the uniform, makes a legal change in the short term almost impossible. The hundreds of religious men voluntarily enlisted these months do not solve the problem. Nor the fact that, for the first time since its birth in 1999, members of the Netzach Yehuda battalion, made up exclusively of ultra-Orthodox, participate in combat inside Gaza.

“We have to put an end to the us and them and move on to us and us,” explains Yehoshua Pfeffer, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi and judge, during an interview in Jerusalem. He navigates among those who flatly refuse to enlist and those who want religious people to be just another military man without distinction. “It is very important that the Haredim (God-fearers, as the ultra-Orthodox are known) get involved in Israel in a deeper way and, at this moment, the most urgent issue is the army. But the army is also the most delicate issue,” he points out.

“This represents an important change in the mentality of the haredis, but it is something that has to happen. The army also has to think about the haredis uniting. We have to be able to accommodate them, make the military a place they can be a part of,” Pfeffer understands. In this sense, he believes that formulas can be developed that facilitate the opening of the door, such as integrating them into non-combat units, such as cybersecurity or military radio.

“Israel is no longer the same country as before October 7 and it is time to try to end this injustice,” defends Yaya Fink, from the Labor Party and one of those leading the demonstrations to get religious people involved. Fink is deployed as a reservist in the northern occupied West Bank. “I have been away from my home for 142 days and Israel has many security needs. There are a million and a half ultra-Orthodox religious and they have never been through the army. This has to change. We have to be equal,” he explains over the phone. “I think the majority of society and the members of Parliament support us, but the government coalition depends on the ultra-Orthodox parties and it is difficult to approve a more egalitarian law, but I think this is the best opportunity we have to try,” he says. . In front, the formidable haredi wall.

Ultra-Orthodox professor Aaharon Shwarts, 45, at a yeshiva (rabbinical school) in Jerusalem.Luis De Vega Hernandez

“When I was 25, I became ultra-Orthodox,” says Professor Aaharon Shwarts, who at 45 remembers the times when he did his military service, wore earrings and settled as a settler to live in a van on a hill in the occupied West Bank. Then came God’s call, his marriage, seven children and a recent master’s degree in special education. “Above all is the spiritual world,” he comments, surrounded by several children with long ringlets, and “by learning the Torah you do good to all of Israel, although not physically.” “If they force our kids to go to the army, they are going to stand down and not fight,” Shwarts concludes, appealing to the necessary “motivation” in a yeshivá (rabbinic school) of Mea Sharim, the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood par excellence of Jerusalem.

Aaharon Simons, 31, adds other arguments in the same center, such as that the army, where men and women mix and there are homosexuals, does not respect the Torah. “Our prayers help so that fewer soldiers die. The military themselves know this and thank us. Here, thanks to our prayers, not as many soldiers are falling as on both sides of the Ukrainian war,” he says.

“It is really difficult to achieve a consensus at a legal level. I center my real hope in the people more than in the Knesset (Parliament). Once the street accepts the change in mentality and the religious are more willing to join the army, the parliamentarians will find a solution,” understands Yehoshua Pfeffer. This rabbi, father of eight children educated in yeshivá, is in favor of a new law that regulates the involvement of religious people in the Armed Forces, although, he adds, he believes that “total equality does not exist, it is utopian.” In this sense, he believes the way of life of the ultra-Orthodox must be taken into account, in the same way that women increasingly participate in the army without their role being exact to that of men. “If our values are maintained in the new law, I will be in favor, but forcing change based on absolute equality is impossible, it would lead to a civil war,” he says.

The Government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, singled out for the management of the race, is balancing underpinned by a coalition with far-right and religious parties. These are the ones who are reluctant to accept a legal change that forces the ultra-Orthodox to wear the uniform. Aware of the weakness of his cabinet, Netanyahu said Thursday that a “total agreement” is not possible, although the government will try to find a way “to recruit ultra-Orthodox people into the Israel Defense Forces and for the national civil service.” . This March the matter must be addressed in Parliament. A possible participation of religious women does not even enter into the equation.

“The problem is not just Netanyahu, it is the Haredi politicians, who do not want men to go to the army and the prime minister lives in coalition with them. The problem is Netanyahu’s political survival above the needs of the country,” said Gilad Bar-On, spokesperson for the Brothers and Sisters in Arms reservist association, which also supports the protests in the street. “The time for equality has come and we must put an end to discrimination,” reads one of his statements.

Soldiers pass in front of an ultra-Orthodox man on a Jerusalem streetLuis De Vega Hernandez

The issue, in the shadow of the war conflict, is the order of the day at all levels. “Ultra-Orthodox brothers, you are patriots and lovers of this country and this land (…) Do not wait for the law. Get up and volunteer,” Benny Gantz, minister without portfolio of the cabinet formed to face the war, demanded in a speech. The controversy is not new, since the exemption from the Haredi army is a privilege that dates back to the birth of Israel as a State 75 years ago. Since then, the model of coexistence between religious and lay people is one of the recurring problems.

In the hours before sabbat (the weekend festival that occupies Friday and Saturday), Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market is an anthill. Many of those wandering around or eating at the various stalls with loud music playing are in uniform. “I think studying the Torah is very important,” defends Kfir, 22 years old. He refutes his partner Ron, 21, who is dissatisfied with the role played by the ultra-Orthodox: “I am not religious and for me studying the Torah is not important as a soldier. We sacrifice our lives for everyone. They do not”. Both were deployed in December in Gaza as part of their training as professional soldiers. The oldest of Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer’s eight children is 24 years old and has already become a grandfather, while the youngest is seven. They all follow religious training and way of life, but it does not hide that the issue of the army is a permanent debate in the family and, although it does not see the elders in uniform, it does not rule out that the minors, dragged by the changes that their father, despite being ultra-orthodox, defends.

“If it finally happens, we will be very proud of it,” he says while illustrating what happened in his own environment after October 7. His brother-in-law Yitzhak Leuchter, 30 years old and Haredi, volunteered for the army and is stationed around Gaza. “Before October 7, we would never have dreamed that he or any other family member would go to the military. This is a new reality. So we see that changes are possible”, concludes Judge Pfeffer smiling.