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An impending political storm over enlisting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the Israel Defense Forces is jeopardizing the governing coalition and fracturing the state.

Public opinion on the issue has undergone a sea change in Israel after two years of conflict, and this is now arguably the most explosive political issue facing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Legal Battle

Lawmakers are now debating a draft bill to abolish the special status given to ultra-Orthodox men engaged in full-time religious study, instituted when the the nation was founded in 1948.

This arrangement was ruled illegal by Israel's High Court of Justice two decades ago. Temporary arrangements to maintain it were formally ended by the judiciary last year, pressuring the government to start enlisting the community.

Some 24,000 draft notices were sent out last year, but just approximately 1,200 men from the community reported for duty, according to defense officials given to lawmakers.

Strains Spill Into Violence

Tensions are erupting onto the streets, with lawmakers now debating a new legislative proposal to require yeshiva students into army duty in the same way as other Jewish citizens.

Two Haredi politicians were targeted this month by hardline activists, who are enraged with the Knesset's deliberations of the draft legislation.

Recently, a elite police squad had to extract Military Police officers who were surrounded by a big group of Haredi men as they attempted to detain a man avoiding service.

These arrests have sparked the creation of a new alert system dubbed "Emergency Alert" to rapidly disseminate information through Haredi neighborhoods and call out activists to prevent arrests from occurring.

"We're a Jewish country," said an activist. "You can't fight against Judaism in a Jewish country. It doesn't work."

A World Separate

Yet the changes affecting Israel have not reached the environment of the Torah academy in an ultra-Orthodox city, an religious community on the edge of Tel Aviv.

Inside the classroom, young students learn in partnerships to analyze the Torah, their vividly colored notepads contrasting with the lines of formal attire and traditional skullcaps.

"Arrive late at night, and you will see a significant portion are pursuing religious study," the leader of the yeshiva, the spiritual guide, noted. "Via dedicated learning, we shield the military personnel in the field. This constitutes our service."

The community holds that constant study and religious study protect Israel's armed forces, and are as vital to its security as its tanks and air force. This conviction was endorsed by previous governments in the earlier decades, he said, but he admitted that the nation is evolving.

Rising Public Pressure

The Haredi community has significantly increased its share of Israel's population over the past seven decades, and now accounts for around one in seven. An exemption that started as an exception for several hundred Torah scholars evolved into, by the onset of the Gaza war, a cohort of tens of thousands of men left out of the draft.

Surveys show backing for ending the exemption is rising. A poll in July found that 85% of non-Haredi Jews - encompassing a significant majority in the Prime Minister's political base - supported penalties for those who refused a call-up notice, with a solid consensus in favor of removing privileges, travel documents, or the franchise.

"I feel there are citizens who live in this nation without giving anything back," one serviceman in Tel Aviv commented.

"In my view, regardless of piety, [it] should be an justification not to perform service your country," stated a Tel Aviv resident. "As a citizen by birth, I find it quite ridiculous that you want to avoid service just to study Torah all day."

Voices from Within the Community

Advocacy of extending the draft is also found among religious Jews outside the Haredi community, like Dorit Barak, who lives near the yeshiva and points to non-Haredi religious Jews who do enlist in the army while also studying Torah.

"I am frustrated that ultra-Orthodox people don't serve in the army," she said. "It is unjust. I also believe in the Jewish law, but there's a saying in Jewish tradition - 'The Book and the Sword' – it signifies the Torah and the weapons together. That is the path, until the arrival of peace."

The resident runs a local tribute in Bnei Brak to fallen servicemen, both observant and non-observant, who were fallen in war. Lines of images {