Netanyahu’s Rule In Peril As Ultra-Orthodox Move To Dissolve Knesset Over Conscription Of Haredim

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling government coalition is under a new threat of being toppled after the largest opposition party introduced a measure to dissolve the parliament — and key ultra-Orthodox political and spiritual leaders, angered over the prospect of ultra-Orthodox youth being included in the country’s military draft, are supporting the move to force new elections. 

Since Israel was created in 1948, ultra-Orthodox Haredi Jews have been exempted from the military conscription that’s imposed on almost all other men and women. Haredi men typically dedicate their entire lives to religious study in seminaries called Yeshivas. With Israel waging a multi-front war encompassing Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran, the exemption has become increasingly unpopular with the other segments of Israeli society that must heed the call.

In June 2024, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that the government must start drafting the Haredi. “At the height of a difficult war, the burden of inequality is more than ever acute,” wrote the court in a unanimous decision. The Haredi erupted in protests — some of which turned violent. Since last summer, ultra-Orthodox politicians, including the non-Haredi variety, have been pushing for the Knesset to overcome the high court ruling by codifying the exemption. 

On Wednesday, leading opposition party Yesh Atid advanced a bill calling for the Knesset’s dissolution. The first vote on the measure is expected next week. “This Knesset is finished,” said Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid. “It has nowhere else to go. All that it has brought to the people of Israel is pain, and disasters, and bereavement and crises.” That move cam on the same day that two spiritual leaders of a faction of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism Party, Rabbis Dov Lando and Degel Hatorah, instructed members to move forward with an attempt to topple Netanyahu’s government over the draft issue.  

There are 120 seats in the Knesset, and Netanyahu’s coalition controls 68 of them. Of his coalition, 18 come from Israel’s two main ultra-Orthodox parties. They’ve already been boycotting votes for several weeks. Though he’s proven his ability to dodge political bullets time and time again, Netanyahu would likely be ousted in a new election: A new survey projected Netanyahu’s coalition would garner only 46 to 48 seats, compared to 62 to 72 for an opposition bloc led by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who has repeatedly opposed the draft exemption. 

The ultra-Orthodox have rattled their Knesset-dissolution sabers before, but this move is being perceived as far more serious — as a measure is on the table with the backing of the parties’ religious advisors. On Wednesday afternoon, Netanyahu’s office assured that a crisis can be averted, saying “there is a way to bridge the gaps on the draft issue.” However, any such bridging threatens to trigger outrage among the non-Haredi whose young family members continue facing death and loss of limbs in Gaza and elsewhere as they’re forced to serve.  

The internal division comes as the country is steadily treading deeper into international-pariah territory, owing to growing convictions that the country’s military campaign in Gaza has inflicted a wildly disproportionate toll on civilians. In the latest indicator of that dynamic, YouGov reports that support and sympathy for Israel among Western Europeans have reached the lowest levels the firm has recorded in its nine years of polling. Israel’s net-negatives are -44 in Germany, -48 in France, -54 in Denmark, -52 in Italy and -55 in Spain. In the United States, Pew Research in March reported that Americans’ support of Israel was the lowest in its 25 years of tracking that sentiment.