The Israeli Parliament adopted on Monday July 13 a law on the importance of Torah study, demanded by ultra-Orthodox Jews but criticized by others who consider it to favor this community which opposes military service.
According to its opponents, this so-called fundamental law, acting as a Constitution, will be used as an argument by the ultra-Orthodox to escape conscription, a subject at the heart of heated debates. It states that “the study of the Torah is a fundamental value of the heritage of the Jewish people and the State of Israel.”
The text was adopted in second and third readings with 63 votes for and 52 against, just a few days before the dissolution of the Knesset in preparation for the legislative elections on October 27, putting an end to several months of tense negotiations between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ultra-Orthodox allies.
Benjamin Netanyahu, absent from the vote, hopes to strengthen their alliance before the election, although, according to the latest polls, he would not be able to form the next government. The two ultra-Orthodox parties had withdrawn their support, precisely because of the bill, which went through several versions before its adoption.
A law tailored for the ultra-orthodox
The previous version compared the rights of yeshiva students (Talmudic schools) to those of soldiers but was not approved by Likud, the prime minister’s right-wing party, and was therefore deleted. In exchange for its adoption, deputies from the two ultra-Orthodox parties agreed to vote for laws proposed by Likud.
The text provoked an outcry in the opposition, but also among certain elected representatives of the coalition, such as the deputy Dan Illouz, who resigned from the Likud. “This is a law which will serve, in practice, to legitimize the exemption from military service,” he said.
According to media reports, the Ministry of Finance opposed this because “if the right to Torah study takes precedence over the principle of equality, this will result in a serious attack on budgetary priorities.” “The government is taking advantage of the last days of (parliamentary sessions in) the Knesset to pass laws against the army,” criticized Benjamin Netanyahu’s main opponent, former chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot.
A large majority of the population can no longer support the exemption enjoyed by the ultra-Orthodox while the reservists have spent several periods under the flag since the war triggered by the attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on October 7, 2023.
