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A gathering political storm over conscripting Haredi men into the Israel Defense Forces is posing a risk to Israel's government and fracturing the nation.

Popular sentiment on the matter has shifted dramatically in Israel in the wake of two years of war, and this is now perhaps the most divisive political challenge facing Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Legal Struggle

Lawmakers are reviewing a draft bill to terminate the exemption given to Haredi students enrolled in yeshiva learning, established when the State of Israel was established in 1948.

That exemption was struck down by the nation's top court in the early 2000s. Stopgap solutions to extend it were finally concluded by the judiciary last year, pressuring the government to start enlisting the Haredi sector.

Roughly 24,000 enlistment orders were sent out last year, but only around 1,200 men from the community reported for duty, according to defense officials given to lawmakers.

Strains Erupt Into Public View

Friction is spilling onto the city centers, with lawmakers now debating a new conscription law to compel yeshiva students into military service together with other secular Israelis.

A pair of ultra-Orthodox lawmakers were targeted this month by hardline activists, who are incensed with the legislative debate of the bill.

In a recent incident, a special Border Police unit had to rescue enforcement personnel who were attacked by a large crowd of Haredi men as they attempted to detain a man avoiding service.

Such incidents have sparked the creation of a new messaging system named "Emergency Alert" to send out instant alerts through ultra-Orthodox communities and summon activists to prevent arrests from occurring.

"We're a Jewish country," remarked an activist. "One cannot oppose religious practice in a nation founded on Jewish identity. That is untenable."

An Environment Separate

But the transformations sweeping across Israel have not yet breached the confines of the Kisse Rahamim yeshiva in a Haredi stronghold, an ultra-Orthodox city on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

Inside the classroom, teenage boys sit in pairs to analyze Jewish law, their brightly coloured writing books popping against the seats of light-colored shirts and traditional skullcaps.

"Come at one in the morning, and you will see many of the students are studying Torah," the dean of the academy, the spiritual guide, noted. "Via dedicated learning, we safeguard the troops on the front lines. This is our army."

Haredi Jews maintain that continuous prayer and Torah learning guard Israel's military, and are as vital to its military success as its conventional forces. This tenet was endorsed by the nation's leaders in the previous eras, the rabbi said, but he conceded that public attitudes are shifting.

Rising Public Pressure

The ultra-Orthodox population has grown substantially its percentage of the nation's citizens over the since the state's founding, and now represents 14%. A policy that originated as an deferment for a small number of religious students evolved into, by the start of the recent conflict, a group of approximately 60,000 men exempt from the national service.

Surveys suggest approval of drafting the Haredim is rising. Research in July showed that 85% of the broader Jewish public - even a large segment in Netanyahu's own right-wing Likud party - favored penalties for those who refused a enlistment summons, with a clear majority in approving withdrawing benefits, the right to travel, or the electoral participation.

"It makes me feel there are citizens who are part of this country without serving," one serviceman in Tel Aviv explained.

"I don't think, regardless of piety, [it] should be an justification not to perform service your state," said a Tel Aviv resident. "If you're born here, I find it somewhat unreasonable that you want to opt out just to learn in a yeshiva all day."

Voices from Within Bnei Brak

Support for extending the draft is also coming from religious Jews beyond the Haredi community, like a Bnei Brak inhabitant, who is a neighbor of the seminary and points to observant but non-Haredi Jews who do serve in the military while also maintaining their faith.

"It makes me angry that ultra-Orthodox people don't enlist," she said. "It is unjust. I am also committed to the Jewish law, but there's a proverb in Jewish tradition - 'The Book and the Sword' – it signifies the Torah and the defense together. That is the path, until the days of peace."

Ms Barak runs a small memorial in the neighborhood to local soldiers, both religious and secular, who were killed in battle. Long columns of faces {