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An impending crisis over enlisting Haredi men into the military is jeopardizing the governing coalition and fracturing the nation.

Public opinion on the issue has shifted dramatically in Israel after two years of hostilities, and this is now perhaps the most volatile political risk facing Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Legal Conflict

Politicians are currently considering a draft bill to abolish the special status given to ultra-Orthodox men enrolled in full-time religious study, created when the the nation was founded in 1948.

This arrangement was ruled illegal by the nation's top court two decades ago. Temporary arrangements to extend it were officially terminated by the court last year, forcing the cabinet to begin drafting the ultra-Orthodox population.

Some 24,000 call-up papers were delivered last year, but just approximately 1,200 men from the community reported for duty, according to army data shared with lawmakers.

Strains Boil Over Onto the Streets

Friction is spilling onto the public squares, with parliamentarians now deliberating a new legislative proposal to compel ultra-Orthodox men into national service together with other secular Israelis.

Two Haredi politicians were targeted this month by radical elements, who are incensed with the Knesset's deliberations of the bill.

And last week, a special Border Police unit had to assist enforcement personnel who were targeted by a sizeable mob of ultra-Orthodox protesters as they tried to arrest a suspected draft-evader.

Such incidents have prompted the establishment of a new messaging system named "Emergency Alert" to rapidly disseminate information through Haredi neighborhoods and summon demonstrators to stop detentions from taking place.

"We're a Jewish country," said one protester. "One cannot oppose religious practice in a Jewish state. It doesn't work."

A World Separate

Yet the changes blowing through Israel have not yet breached the environment of the religious seminary in Bnei Brak, an Haredi enclave on the fringes of Tel Aviv.

Inside the classroom, young students sit in pairs to debate the Torah, their brightly coloured school notebooks contrasting with the lines of light-colored shirts and small black kippahs.

"Come at one in the morning, and you will see a significant portion are engaged in learning," the dean of the seminary, a senior rabbi, noted. "By studying Torah, we safeguard the soldiers on the front lines. This constitutes our service."

The community holds that constant study and Torah learning protect Israel's armed forces, and are as crucial to its military success as its tanks and air force. This conviction was endorsed by the nation's leaders in the earlier decades, Rabbi Mazuz said, but he admitted that the nation is evolving.

Rising Popular Demand

The Haredi community has grown substantially its proportion of Israel's population over the last seventy years, and now represents 14%. An exemption that started as an deferment for a few hundred religious students turned into, by the start of the recent conflict, a group of some 60,000 men exempt from the draft.

Surveys indicate backing for ending the exemption is growing. A survey in July revealed that 85% of secular and traditional Jews - including a significant majority in the Prime Minister's political base - supported penalties for those who ignored a enlistment summons, with a solid consensus in supporting withdrawing benefits, the right to travel, or the electoral participation.

"It seems to me there are citizens who are part of this country without serving," one serviceman in Tel Aviv explained.

"In my view, however religious you are, [it] should be an excuse not to go and serve your country," stated a Tel Aviv resident. "Being a native, I find it somewhat unreasonable that you want to exempt yourself just to engage in religious study all day."

Perspectives from the Heart of Bnei Brak

Advocacy of ending the exemption is also found among observant Jews beyond the Haredi community, like one local resident, who is a neighbor of the seminary and points to religious Zionists who do perform national service while also studying Torah.

"It makes me angry that ultra-Orthodox people don't serve in the army," she said. "It is unjust. I am also committed to the Jewish law, but there's a saying in Jewish tradition - 'Safra and Saifa' – it signifies the Torah and the weapons together. That's the way forward, until the messianic era."

She maintains a modest remembrance site in the neighborhood to soldiers from the area, both from all backgrounds, who were killed in battle. Long columns of images {