Israeli Government Passes Controversial Legislation
Israeli soldiers and their families are not happy with several pieces of the recent legislation passed by the Knesset that will directly impact them.
There’s an old joke that has floated around Israel for years but seems more relevant today. It goes: One-third of the Israeli population works; one-third of its population pays taxes; and one-third serves in the army.
The only problem is, it’s the same one-third.
Just before Israel’s parliament, or Knesset, dissolved itself in anticipation of the country’s upcoming elections in October, the legislative body approved several laws — some of which are extremely controversial and reflect the angst expressed in that joke.
Only it’s no joke to the majority of Israelis who work, pay taxes, and serve in the military. In fact, some of the latter have served almost non-stop since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists attacked southern Israel, prompting Israel’s retaliatory war that spread to surrounding countries – and continues today on some level.
So, Israeli soldiers and their families are not happy with several pieces of the recent legislation passed by the Knesset that will directly impact them. One law extends compulsory army service from 30 to 32 months. Another law, that has the weight of a constitutional law even though Israel doesn’t actually have a constitution, enshrines Torah study as a “fundamental value in the heritage of the Jewish people and the State of Israel.”
The latter legislation didn’t go as far as the powerful religious parties had wanted, which was to have Torah study be on par with military service, “but they were trying to set a precedent for the future,” explained Eli Sperling, Israel Institute Teaching Fellow at the University of Georgia Department of International Affairs.
Benjamin Porat, a senior fellow at the Jerusalem-based Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) and Shlomit Ravitsky Tur-Paz, an IDI director, wrote that although “a clause explicitly equating yeshiva students with Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers was removed from the final draft under public pressure, the law could be interpreted as a basis for issuing blanket exemptions from military service and the preferential grant of public funding for the ultra-Orthodox, and perhaps other sectors.”
Much more controversial, Sperling said, was the legislation that bans arrests, criminal investigations, and other enforcement issues against yeshiva students who are subject to military service for four months. “There’s outrage. It’s an impassioned issue,” he said. And since the law was enacted as a temporary measure, it would automatically remain in effect beyond Nov. 30 due to the Oct. 27 national election and the few months it will take until the next Knesset takes office.
Less than 24 hours after the law was passed, however, the Supreme Court issued a temporary order freezing implementation of the law saying it was concerned that the law was discriminatory since ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers would not be liable for arrest while draft dodgers from the general public would.
Days later, on July 28, Israel’s Supreme Court indefinitely froze the legislation, saying a final ruling would come “soon,” according to reporting in Times of Israel. During a hearing before the court, “Representatives of the Knesset’s legal adviser and the attorney general both said that the law should be annulled, with the former arguing that the manner in which the legislation was passed severely violated Knesset procedure, and the latter asserting that the law creates unconstitutional discriminatory enforcement in the criminal justice system,” reported Times of Israel.
“Such a proposal is truly out of the ordinary — suspending enforcement of the law for one population group is, quite simply, not how laws work in a democracy,” wrote Tur-Paz.
She noted that the ultra-Orthodox (or Haredim) public “has managed to avoid conscription almost entirely throughout roughly three years of a difficult and bloody war, even though the legal exemption from conscription for yeshiva students expired in July 2023, a couple of months prior to Oct. 7.”
According to Israeli military sources, some 72,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged 18 to 24 are currently eligible for military service but have ignored conscription orders. The IDF has said repeatedly in recent months that it urgently needs 12,000 new recruits amid the ongoing multifront conflict.
Reserve soldiers who have been called back to serve repeatedly in the last few years have been pulled away from their jobs or businesses or schooling for months at a time because there are not enough soldiers. “There are ripple effects on the economy,” points out Sperling.
A couple of other contentious bills primarily designed to satisfy the demands of the ultra-Orthodox and far-right parties also passed, even though they may be less controversial. One reversed the reforms passed in 2021 by the previous government that opened up the centralized kashrut market to competition, established uniform regulation and pursued an end to the Chief Rabbinate’s exclusive control over imported products. The new law, according to the IDI, restores the state rabbinate’s monopoly, reduces competition and limits religious choice and the autonomy of local rabbis.
Another law expanded gender separation in academia. Prior to passage of this bill, the existing law permitted government-funded undergraduate degrees in gender-separated tracks designed specifically for ultra-Orthodox students. The new law, according to the IDI, expands these tracks to include more advanced degrees. It also expands the scope of permissible gender separation beyond the classroom to public spaces on campus.
Sperling, who will be teaching a course at the University of Georgia in the fall semester about the politics of Israel and Palestine, says legislation passed in July to overhaul broadcast media in Israel also is “extremely significant.” Days after it passed, however, the Supreme Court temporarily froze implementation of clauses that were most far-reaching and slated to go into effect immediately. The petitioners before the court argued the law was designed to benefit pro-government news outlets and charged that the law could severely impact political neutrality of the broadcast news media. “It would give a great deal of power to the government, allowing it to influence the media,” said Sperling.
“If Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can form a government coalition [after the upcoming election], this can be significant,” said Sperling. “Even if some of the legislation is struck down by the Supreme Court, the real value is demonstrating his willingness to pursue the legislative goals of his would-be coalition.”
Netanyahu, he said, “is really rolling the dice. I see the real risk lies with [his] Likud Party voters.” Some of the Likud voter base, who do serve in the military, don’t support the avoidance of conscription by the ultra-Orthodox, “but they have historically been extremely loyal to him, which is what Bibi [using Netanyahu’s nickname] seems to be banking on.”
Sperling pointed out, too, that if the Supreme Court rules against some of the legislation passed by Netanyahu’s government, it could benefit the prime minister. “The orthodox, religious nationalist and Likud voters on the right are already hostile towards” the Supreme Court. “They assume the court will sabotage [Netanyahu’s] legislative goals and [that’s why they] are seeking judicial overhaul to curtail what they see as the progressive court intervening in Israeli democracy. This strategy could very well work out for him.”
And if the next Netanyahu government decides to ignore rulings from the Supreme Court, analysts express concern of a constitutional crisis — despite Israel not actually having a constitution. “We don’t know what would happen,” said Sperling.
A lot depends on how Israelis vote on Oct. 27, and what kind of coalition of parties could be stitched together to create the next government. If an opposition government is formed after the elections, Sperling noted, the “Knesset has the ability to make changes in the recent laws.”
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