Can Israel's ultra-Orthodox military volunteers help defuse the battle over conscription?
ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, whose exemption from compulsory military service is dividing Israel and threatens to topple its government. He is also a major in the infantry reserves of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
The long-standing military waiver for the ultra-Orthodox has sparked waves of protest in recent weeks by more secular Israelis, angry that they are shouldering the risk and drudgery of fighting the war in Gaza, now six months old. In city streets, ultra-Orthodox demonstrators have scuffled with combat veterans who sport khaki shirts and hoist national flags.
In fact, around 10% of the haredim, as the ultra-Orthodox are known, come forward voluntarily for the standard three years of military service, Levi said. Some go on to be officers, like him.
That amounts to just 1,200 ultra-Orthodox volunteers a year — a tiny number compared to an estimated 170,000 active soldiers and nearly 500,000 reservists in Israel. The IDF does not publish troop numbers.
But Levi, who runs the Netzah Yehuda organisation that encourages ultra-Orthodox enlistment, says attitudes are softening within some parts of the community towards military service amid the war. And that, he hopes, could be enough to ease the current crisis.
«We can double it and can triple it in one, two years, and we can see a lot of haredim and it's going to be enough for the IDF,» said the 33-year-old at his Jerusalem headquarters, where one wall is adorned with pictures of fallen haredi soldiers. «They don't want all of the haredim.»
Thousands
