Why Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jews might soon have to serve in the military | DW News

Since Israel’s founding, ultra-Orthodox Jews in the country have been exempt from serving in the military so they can better devote themselves to religious study.
Today they number some 66,000 but last month, Israel's top court effectively lifted that exemption, triggering huge protests from the Orthodox community.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has until the end of the month to agree on a new conscription plan.

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[MouseCritical]

They are angry not because they have to serve in military but because this will shows that they are not special from the regular Israeli people.

[pevlez]

They don't want to serve but they want to keep goverment subsidies

[casewargaming]

So they support the war in Gaza but want others to do the fighting for them

[aravel]

"We want the protection of the IDF, we want the subsidies from the government to study and we want the right to vote and choose the government BUT we dont want to fight for these rights."

[bellar]

Stop giving them money, all they want is to live for free.

[HakimOne]

This is hilarious. They are the most extremist group from the Israel side(Palestine side have too). Now that they are required to fight for what they always wanted, they are angy 😂

[lemontek]

1:03 "Many of the men brought their holy books with them to the protest" ...reminds me of when I brought my collection of Harry Potter books to the Job Centre to show how busy I was that I simply couldn't work

[elrondes]

"They don't see themselves as Israeli" - So that means they would have no issue leaving the country of Israel then? They want to live there, enjoy Israeli protection and benefits, but are exempt because they're "Torah Scholars" lmao

[eccentricbeliever]

Are these the same guys that don't work and depend fully on government support and have like 8 kids per couple

[pisces]

Why do they expect to be protected by everyone else?

[nicoresnik]

Notice how they too say they don’t care about the suffering in Gaza. They just want their special perks for reading

[Gabriel-djkf]

So, they want to live in the country, but don't want to defend it 🤔

[jmesa]

Subsidized for reading old books and having kids... of course they don't want a change. Ludicrous

[JP-oery]

66, 000 people who offer nothing to their society. Studying the Bible full time has to be the most pointless endeavour in the universe.

[azaharis]

They are leeches of the system but won’t serve the system. It’s about time that law was changed. For those who don’t know, they can live tax free in Israel as long as they study Orthodox Judaism and have children. Those children also live tax free. Over time this puts heavy stress on the system.

[Akiva_Merkavah]

You cannot have such a large chunk of the population sucking up resources from the state while contributing nothing. The selfishness and lack of logic here is confusing.

[chrismccartney]

Why should they be exempt and Make others die on their behalf !!

[halimmaulanasafaat]

Between the choosen people there are ultra choosen people

[jessicayoung]

You expect others to fight and die to protect you, but you won't fight for them or yourselves?

[telanos]

These same people are among the most bloodthristy warmongers within Israeli politics. How convenient that they don't have to actually fight in the wars they all but demand.
I'm guessing they might be a little less bloodthirsty if they were themselves required to go to the front lines of the same fights they so eagerly advocate for.