Ultra-Orthodox students must be drafted, Israel court rules

Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled in a landmark case that ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students must be drafted to the military.

There have been long-standing exemptions for conscription for young men registered in full-time religious study, but a legal arrangement allowing the practice to continue expired recently.

In Israel, the military is often described as “the People’s Army” and the wide-scale exemption of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men from conscription has been a point of contention for decades.

The strains of the current war in Gaza - with Israeli military leaders complaining of a shortage of combat soldiers - have led to renewed demands for what is seen as more equal sharing of the security burden.

This ruling by Israel’s top court means that potentially tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox men could now face the draft.

The court also ruled that there should be a freeze in public funding for Jewish seminaries whose students evade conscription.