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A looming crisis over drafting Haredi men into the Israeli army is posing a risk to Israel's government and dividing the state.

Popular sentiment on the issue has undergone a sea change in Israel following two years of conflict, and this is now possibly the most explosive political issue facing the Prime Minister.

The Judicial Conflict

Legislators are now debating a draft bill to end the special status granted to ultra-Orthodox men enrolled in full-time religious study, created when the State of Israel was founded in 1948.

This arrangement was declared unconstitutional by the nation's top court almost 20 years ago. Interim measures to maintain it were formally ended by the bench last year, compelling the government to begin drafting the community.

Approximately 24,000 enlistment orders were delivered last year, but just approximately 1,200 Haredi conscripts reported for duty, according to military testimony shared with lawmakers.

Friction Boil Over Into Violence

Tensions are erupting onto the public squares, with lawmakers now deliberating a new conscription law to force yeshiva students into national service together with other Jewish citizens.

Two Haredi politicians were targeted this month by some extreme ultra-Orthodox protesters, who are incensed with parliament's discussion of the proposed law.

Recently, a elite police squad had to extract Military Police officers who were attacked by a large crowd of Haredi men as they sought to apprehend a suspected draft-evader.

Such incidents have led to the development of a new messaging system dubbed "Dark Alert" to send out instant alerts through the religious sector and mobilize activists to prevent arrests from happening.

"We're a Jewish country," remarked an activist. "You can't fight against the Jewish faith in a nation founded on Jewish identity. That is untenable."

An Environment Apart

Yet the transformations affecting Israel have not reached the walls of the religious seminary in Bnei Brak, an ultra-Orthodox city on the edge of Tel Aviv.

Inside the classroom, teenage boys learn in partnerships to debate the Torah, their brightly coloured writing books contrasting with the lines of white shirts and small black kippahs.

"Come at one in the morning, and you will see half the guys are pursuing religious study," the leader of the seminary, a senior rabbi, noted. "Through religious study, we protect the troops in the field. This is how we contribute."

The community holds that continuous prayer and spiritual pursuit defend Israel's military, and are as crucial to its security as its tanks and air force. That belief was acknowledged by the nation's leaders in the earlier decades, he said, but he acknowledged that public attitudes are shifting.

Rising Societal Anger

The Haredi community has more than doubled its percentage of the country's people over the since the state's founding, and now constitutes a sizable minority. An exemption that started as an deferment for a few hundred yeshiva attendees evolved into, by the onset of the Gaza war, a cohort of some 60,000 men not subject to the national service.

Opinion polls suggest support for ultra-Orthodox conscription is increasing. A survey in July found that an overwhelming percentage of secular and traditional Jews - even almost three-quarters in Netanyahu's own right-wing Likud party - favored penalties for those who refused a draft order, with a solid consensus in favor of removing privileges, travel documents, or the franchise.

"It seems to me there are citizens who reside in this nation without contributing," one serviceman in Tel Aviv said.

"In my view, no matter how devout, [it] should be an reason not to perform service your state," stated Gabby. "As a citizen by birth, I find it somewhat unreasonable that you want to avoid service just to study Torah all day."

Perspectives from Within a Religious City

Advocacy of ending the exemption is also coming from observant Jews beyond the ultra-Orthodox sector, like a Bnei Brak inhabitant, who is a neighbor of the academy and highlights observant but non-Haredi Jews who do serve in the military while also engaging in religious study.

"I am frustrated that the Haredim don't perform military service," she said. "It's unfair. I am also committed to the Jewish law, but there's a proverb in Hebrew - 'The Book and the Sword' – it signifies the scripture and the defense together. That's the way forward, until the arrival of peace."

Ms Barak manages a small memorial in her city to local soldiers, both observant and non-observant, who were fallen in war. Rows of photographs {