Israel’s ultra-conservative United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party has announced its departure from the country’s right-wing coalition government over a long-running dispute over mandatory military service, putting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s grip on power at risk.
Israeli media reported on Monday night that six of the seven remaining UTJ members (who belong to the Degel HaTorah and Agudat Yisrael factions) had submitted their resignations.
UTJ chairman Yitzhak Goldknoff resigned a month ago.
Goldknoff’s spokesman confirmed that a total of seven UTJ members of parliament were leaving the government.
Degel HaTorah told the media that the decision was made at the direction of the party’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Do Landau.
The Degel HaTorah said in a statement that it had “announced the unity and separation from the government after consultations with our chief rabbis and the government’s repeated violations of its promises to guarantee the status of holy yeshiva students.”
The decision leaves Netanyahu with a slim majority of only 61 seats in the 120-member Knesset.
It is unclear whether the Shas party, another ultra-Orthodox party, will also leave the coalition following the decision.
Ultra-Orthodox lawmakers have long expressed displeasure over the mandatory military service bill, arguing that the bill to permanently exempt yeshiva (Jewish seminary) students from military service was a key promise of their coalition agreement with Netanyahu in late 2022.
In June, before the start of the war with Iran, the government barely survived, when government members reached a tentative agreement with conservative parties on exemptions from compulsory military service.
Ultra-Orthodox individuals have long been exempt from military service, while other young Israelis are required to do so, but last year the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the Defense Ministry to end this exemption and also conscript yeshiva students.
Benjamin Netanyahu has been working hard to resolve the issue, but the new military conscription bill has become the cause of the current crisis.
Netanyahu’s own Likud party is under pressure to conscript more ultra-Orthodox men and impose fines on those who refuse to serve, a “red line” for the Shas party, which wants a law that would exempt its members from permanent military service.
Netanyahu’s government, formed in December 2022, is considered one of the most right-wing governments in Israeli history.
