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A gathering crisis over enlisting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the Israel Defense Forces is posing a risk to Israel's government and splitting the nation.

Popular sentiment on the matter has changed profoundly in Israel following two years of war, and this is now arguably the most divisive political issue facing Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Judicial Conflict

Politicians are now debating a draft bill to terminate the deferment awarded to Haredi students enrolled in yeshiva learning, created when the State of Israel was declared in 1948.

That exemption was declared unconstitutional by the nation's top court in the early 2000s. Temporary arrangements to maintain it were finally concluded by the bench last year, pressuring the government to begin drafting the community.

Some 24,000 enlistment orders were delivered last year, but merely about 1,200 ultra-Orthodox - or Haredi - draftees reported for duty, according to army data given to lawmakers.

Strains Spill Into Violence

Friction is spilling onto the public squares, with elected officials now debating a new conscription law to compel yeshiva students into military service together with other Jewish citizens.

A pair of ultra-Orthodox lawmakers were confronted this month by some extreme ultra-Orthodox protesters, who are enraged with parliament's discussion of the bill.

And last week, a elite police squad had to rescue enforcement personnel who were targeted by a big group of ultra-Orthodox protesters as they tried to arrest a suspected draft-evader.

These arrests have prompted the establishment of a new messaging system dubbed "Dark Alert" to rapidly disseminate information through Haredi neighborhoods and call out demonstrators to stop detentions from happening.

"Israel is a Jewish nation," remarked an activist. "You can't fight against religious practice in a Jewish country. It is a contradiction."

An Environment Separate

But the transformations sweeping across Israel have not yet breached the walls of the Torah academy in Bnei Brak, an ultra-Orthodox city on the fringes of Tel Aviv.

In the learning space, teenage boys learn in partnerships to analyze Judaism's religious laws, their distinctive school notebooks contrasting with the rows of light-colored shirts and traditional skullcaps.

"Visit in the early hours, and you will see many of the students are engaged in learning," the head of the academy, the spiritual guide, explained. "Via dedicated learning, we safeguard the troops wherever they are. This is our army."

Ultra-Orthodox believe that unceasing devotion and Torah learning guard Israel's soldiers, and are as vital to its defense as its tanks and air force. This tenet was acknowledged by the nation's leaders in the past, the rabbi said, but he admitted that the nation is evolving.

Increasing Societal Anger

The ultra-Orthodox population has more than doubled its share of the country's people over the last seventy years, and now accounts for around one in seven. A policy that originated as an exception for a small number of Torah scholars turned into, by the beginning of the Gaza war, a group of some 60,000 men not subject to the national service.

Surveys suggest approval of drafting the Haredim is growing. Research in July revealed that an overwhelming percentage of secular and traditional Jews - encompassing almost three-quarters in Netanyahu's own right-wing Likud party - supported penalties for those who ignored a enlistment summons, with a clear majority in approving removing privileges, travel documents, or the electoral participation.

"It seems to me there are individuals who reside in this nation without giving anything back," one serviceman in Tel Aviv said.

"In my view, no matter how devout, [it] should be an justification not to go and serve your state," said a young woman. "As a citizen by birth, I find it somewhat unreasonable that you want to exempt yourself just to study Torah all day."

Views from the Heart of a Religious City

Support for broadening conscription is also expressed by observant Jews outside the ultra-Orthodox sector, like one local resident, who is a neighbor of the seminary and notes non-Haredi religious Jews who do enlist in the army while also studying Torah.

"I'm very angry that ultra-Orthodox people don't serve in the army," she said. "It's unfair. I am also committed to the Torah, but there's a saying in Hebrew - 'The Book and the Sword' – it signifies the scripture and the guns together. That is the path, until the messianic era."

The resident maintains a local tribute in the neighborhood to local soldiers, both from all backgrounds, who were lost in conflict. Long columns of photographs {