With Netanyahu, ultra-Orthodox parties chart Israel’s future

To preserve his new government, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is making significant concessions to far-right political parties on Palestinian issues, judicial independence and police powers, but also less-noticed moves on behalf of another key member of his coalition: parties that represent the fast-growing ultra-Orthodox public.

Members of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community have long enjoyed benefits unavailable to many other Israeli citizens: exemption from army service for Torah students, government stipends for those choosing full-time religious study over work and separate schools that receive state funds even though their curriculums barely teach government-mandated subjects.

Those benefits have fuelled resentment among large segments of the more secular public, and Israeli leaders have declared for years that their intention was to draw more of the ultra-Orthodox, known as Haredim, into the workforce and society.

But the string of promises by Netanyahu in recent weeks as he pulled together the country’s most right-wing and religiously conservative government ever suggest that Haredi leaders are pushing hard to cement the community’s special status, with broad-ranging implications for Israeli society and the economy.

Netanyahu has promised ultra-Orthodox leaders a new, separate city for Haredim where the Haredi lifestyle would guide planning. He has agreed to increase funding for Haredi seminary students and provide access to government jobs without university degrees. And he has pledged a wide range of government handouts for the Haredi school system.

“It’s very clear that the Haredi leadership that sewed up these agreements is going for strengthening the Haredi autonomy and not integration,” said professor Yedidia Stern, president of the Jewish People Policy Institute, an independent research centre.

The departing finance minister, Avigdor Liberman, a staunch critic of the Haredi parties, said the cost of all of the additional promised funding for Haredi causes would come to an estimated 20 billion shekels (about $5.7 billion) a year and constituted “an attempt to collapse the Israeli economy.”

The promises to the Haredim are part of a range of changes that the Netanyahu-led coalition is trying to enact, including judicial overhauls that would allow parliament to strike down Supreme Court decisions and give politicians more influence over the appointment of judges. The coalition has the numbers in parliament to push through the measures, which it plans to soon introduce as legislation, as long as the various parties stay united, but they could also face challenges in the courts.

The new coalition government has also promised an uncompromising approach to the Palestinians, with some senior officials ultimately supporting the annexation by Israel of the occupied West Bank, territory that the Palestinians see as part of a future state for them, as well as an acceleration in Jewish settlement construction there.

In one of his first acts as Israel’s minister of national security, ultranationalist Itamar Ben-Gvir last week visited a volatile Jerusalem holy site sacred to Jews and Muslims, defying threats of violent repercussions and eliciting a furious reaction from Arab leaders and international condemnations.

Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, was ousted from office 18 months ago and replaced by a tenuous coalition of anti-Netanyahu forces from the right and left but excluding the Haredi and far-right parties. After that coalition collapsed, Israel’s fifth election in under four years brought Netanyahu and his far-right and ultra-Orthodox bloc back to power, together winning a majority of 64 seats in the 120-seat Parliament.

Ultra-Orthodox parties won the most parliamentary seats in years in the November elections, reflecting the fast growth of this largely insular community and making them linchpins of Netanyahu’s government.

To ensure the loyalty of the ultra-Orthodox parties, Netanyahu also agreed to create special budgets for public transportation in Haredi areas and to pass a law anchoring Torah study as a national value, akin to compulsory military service. Another contentious measure would formalize the long-standing arrangement granting exemption from the draft to Torah students, further undermining the once-hallowed principle of universal conscription.

Haredi society is not homogeneous, and some more modern Haredim join the army, seek a secular higher education to equip them for the labour market and even work in high tech.

Most Haredi women have jobs, albeit often low-paying ones. But only about half of ultra-Orthodox men go to work. Critics say the promise to increase stipends for Torah students will be a disincentive for them to join the labour force.

Haredi children now make up one-fourth of all Jewish children in the school system and one-fifth of all pupils in the country, Jewish and Arab. Most Haredi boys focus on religious studies and learn little or no math, English or science.

Torah study will be formally recognised as higher education, and yeshiva students will get the same 50% discount on public transportation as university students.

Haredi politicians have long promoted a conservative social agenda that rejects the idea of civil or same-sex marriage and opposes gay rights, as well as work and the provision of public transportation on the Sabbath. And their political involvement has alienated many Jews abroad who practice less-stringent forms of Judaism.

The new concessions agreed to by Netanyahu — including proposals to restrict the Law of Return, which grants refuge and automatic citizenship to foreign Jews, their spouses and descendants who have at least one Jewish grandparent — are already straining Israel’s ties with many in the Jewish diaspora.

The Haredi approach over the years was one of “exile mentality,” said Israel Cohen, a political commentator for Kol Berama, a Haredi radio station, focusing on remaining apart rather than trying to influence general society.

A “Haredi-Israeli culture” has now grown up, he said, and “Haredim want Israel to be more Jewish.” He added: “You’d think a Haredi becoming more Israeli would become more liberal. But no, it’s the opposite. They want Israel to become more Haredi.”