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A gathering political storm over enlisting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the Israel Defense Forces is threatening to undermine Israel's government and dividing the state.

Public opinion on the issue has shifted dramatically in Israel following two years of hostilities, and this is now arguably the most divisive political challenge facing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Constitutional Conflict

Legislators are reviewing a piece of legislation to terminate the special status awarded to yeshiva scholars engaged in full-time religious study, established when the the nation was established in 1948.

This arrangement was declared unconstitutional by the nation's top court in the early 2000s. Temporary arrangements to maintain it were formally ended by the court last year, compelling the administration to begin drafting the community.

Roughly 24,000 draft notices were issued last year, but only around 1,200 ultra-Orthodox - or Haredi - draftees reported for duty, according to army data shared with lawmakers.

Friction Spill Into Public View

Strains are boiling over onto the streets, with lawmakers now deliberating a new conscription law to force Haredi males into military service together with other Israeli Jews.

A pair of ultra-Orthodox lawmakers were harassed this month by hardline activists, who are enraged with parliament's discussion of the draft legislation.

Recently, a elite police squad had to assist enforcement personnel who were surrounded by a sizeable mob of Haredi men as they tried to arrest a man avoiding service.

These arrests have sparked the creation of a new messaging system named "Dark Alert" to spread word quickly through the religious sector and call out activists to stop detentions from occurring.

"This is a Jewish state," said one protester. "You can't fight against the Jewish faith in a Jewish state. It is a contradiction."

An Environment Set Aside

However the shifts affecting Israel have failed to penetrate the confines of the Torah academy in Bnei Brak, an Haredi enclave on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

In the learning space, young students sit in pairs to discuss Judaism's religious laws, their vividly colored writing books popping against the lines of white shirts and small black kippahs.

"Arrive late at night, and you will see a significant portion are studying Torah," the dean of the seminary, the spiritual guide, explained. "By studying Torah, we protect the soldiers wherever they are. This constitutes our service."

Haredi Jews maintain that unceasing devotion and Torah learning defend Israel's soldiers, and are as crucial to its security as its tanks and air force. This conviction was acknowledged by previous governments in the past, he said, but he conceded that public attitudes are shifting.

Rising Popular Demand

This religious sector has more than doubled its percentage of the nation's citizens over the since the state's founding, and now accounts for 14%. An exemption that started as an deferment for several hundred religious students turned into, by the beginning of the recent conflict, a body of tens of thousands of men left out of the national service.

Surveys show support for drafting the Haredim is increasing. Research in July revealed that an overwhelming percentage of non-Haredi Jews - even a large segment in his own coalition allies - supported consequences for those who ignored a enlistment summons, with a firm majority in approving removing privileges, the right to travel, or the right to vote.

"It makes me feel there are people who are part of this country without contributing," one military member in Tel Aviv explained.

"In my view, however religious you are, [it] should be an reason not to go and serve your state," added a Tel Aviv resident. "As a citizen by birth, I find it somewhat unreasonable that you want to avoid service just to study Torah all day."

Perspectives from Inside the Community

Advocacy of ending the exemption is also coming from observant Jews outside the Haredi community, like Dorit Barak, who is a neighbor of the yeshiva and notes non-Haredi religious Jews who do serve in the military while also studying Torah.

"I am frustrated that this community don't perform military service," she said. "It's unfair. I too follow the Jewish law, but there's a saying in Jewish tradition - 'Safra and Saifa' – it means the Torah and the defense together. That is the path, until the arrival of peace."

Ms Barak runs a local tribute in her city to local soldiers, both observant and non-observant, who were lost in conflict. Lines of images {