Moves in Israel to remove exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jews

Ruth Margalit in Draft Reform in Israel looks at how the recent announcement that the Kadima Party would join the coalition Government in Israel will result in many ultra-Orthodox Jews losing their exemption from military service. However, this may create issues given the attitude of many ultra-Orthodox Jewish men to women.

Longer term the Israeli Government also needs to get ultra-Orthodox Jews back into the work force:

As complicated as it may be to integrate the ultra-Orthodox into the army, there’s no question that the current reality of exemption is unequal, unjust, and unsustainable. But tackling the disproportionate military burden offers just a partial solution. The real test for the government—unity agreement or not—would be to finally address the labor burden. A country in which one segment of the population is parasitic on another cannot thrive in the long run. The social-justice protests that swept the streets of Israel last summer is set to resume in the coming weeks. It would do well to champion the unbalanced division of labor as its cause, and to ensure that the ultra-Orthodox community enters the country’s workforce and—at long last—starts pulling its weight. A new report by Israel’s trade and labor ministry shows that if demographic trends remain the same, the workforce will shrink by six per cent over the next twenty years. If the draft law doesn’t worry Netanyahu, this should.