https://archive.ph/xZ6Kr

Second Israeli ultra-Orthodox party to quit government in blow to Netanyahu

The ultra-Orthodox Shas party says it will leave the government in response to dispute over mandatory military service. A key partner in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government says it is quitting, dealing a major blow to the Israeli prime minister that could leave him heading a minority coalition in parliament. The ultra-Orthodox Shas party said on Wednesday that it was leaving the cabinet in protest against lawmakers’ failure to guarantee future exemption from military conscription for religious students.

“Shas representatives … find with a heavy heart that they cannot stay in the government and be a part of it,” said the group in a statement. It was not immediately clear whether the decision would leave Netanyahu with a minority in parliament. Without Shas, Netanyahu’s coalition would have 50 seats in the 120-seat Knesset.

Shas, which has long served as a kingmaker in Israeli politics, said it would not work to undermine the government once outside it and could vote with it on some laws. It also said it would not support its collapse. The departure of Shas from the government comes one day after another ultra-Orthodox party, United Torah Judaism (UTJ), resigned from the government over the same issue, which has prompted an explosive debate in the country after more than 21 months of war with Hamas in Gaza.

While ultra-Orthodox seminary students have long been exempt from mandatory military service, many Israelis are angered by what they see as an unfair burden carried by other groups who serve. The moves by Shas and UTJ come just before the Israeli parliament starts a three-month recess on July 27, giving the prime minister several months of little to no legislative activity to bring the parties back into the fold.

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish leaders say full-time devotion to holy scriptures study is sacrosanct and fear their young men will turn away from religious life if they are drafted into the military. Last year, the Supreme Court ordered an end to the exemption. The parliament has been trying to work out a new conscription bill, which has so far failed to meet the demands of both Shas and UTJ. Religious Services Minister Michael Malkieli, a member of Shas, said on Wednesday that rabbis were angered after Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein reneged on promises regarding the bill, according to a report in the Times of Israel. Malkieli, reading from a statement by the Council of Torah Sages, also hit out at actions taken by the Israeli military and attorney general to pursue draft dodgers, describing the move as “nothing less than cruel and criminal persecution against yeshiva students”.