JERUSALEM — Israel’s defense minister instructed the military on Tuesday to start drafting ultra-Orthodox Jewish men as it does other Israelis, setting up a potential clash over an issue that has divided the country for decades.
Ehud Barak gave defense officials a month to craft a plan to put it into practice, trying to buy time in a last-ditch effort to find an agreed solution. His order came just hours before the expiration of a law that has granted tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews exemptions from military duty and followed a Supreme Court ruling against extending the law.
Some ultra-Orthodox activists vowed immediately after the decision that members of their community would go to jail rather than cut short their religious studies to serve
Barak’s decree fills a legal vacuum on the status of the draft. The existing law exempting tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox men from serving was due to expire at midnight. Israel’s Supreme Court overturned that legislation in February, but it remained in effect as the government struggled to come up with a new formula on an issue that has generated tremendous resentment among Israel’s secular majority and modern Orthodox who do serve the compulsory three years.
An estimated 60,000 ultra-Orthodox men of military age do not serve.
