Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled unanimously that the military must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox men for compulsory service, a landmark decision that could lead to the collapse of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition as Israel continues to wage war in Gaza.
The historic ruling effectively puts an end to a decades-old system that granted ultra-Orthodox men broad exemptions from military service while maintaining mandatory enlistment for the country’s secular Jewish majority. The arrangement, deemed discriminatory by critics, has created a deep chasm in Israel’s Jewish majority over who should shoulder the burden of protecting the country.
The court struck down a law that codified exemptions in 2017, but repeated court extensions and government delaying tactics over a replacement dragged out a resolution for years. The court ruled that in the absence of a law, Israel’s compulsory military service applies to the ultra-Orthodox like any other citizen.
Under longstanding arrangements, ultra-Orthodox men have been exempt from the draft, which is compulsory for most Jewish men and women.
Note that there is two separate streams in there. There is the orthodox Jews that use religion as a shield like you say and are avid fans of Israeli fascism but dont want to get their hands dirty.
And there is orthodox Jews that are very outspoken against Israeli fascism, sometimes going as far as rejecting Israeli statehood as a whole and demanding a Palestinian state where people have equal rights regardless of religion or ethnicity and were land has to be bought and cannot be stolen by murdering the rightful owners.